‘Year’s worth of rain’: Outback set for drenching this weekend

Massive parts of Australia could get a year’s worth of rain in the coming days thanks to an unusually strong high pressure system.

Big stretches of the Outback are set to receive a year’s worth of rain in the coming days, increasing the risk of flooding to dirt roads, and road and rail closures.

Weatherzone is forecasting 20 to 60mm of rain across South Australia, southern and western Queensland and northern NSW over the next four days.

Cloud is already forming over Central Australia and the rain is expected to move east from Sunday.

The downpour could be an “entire season’s worth of rain”, Weatherzone predicts.

Forecast rain for the coming seven days. Green is 10-20mm, scaling up to maroon, which is 80-100mm. Picture: WeatherZone

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Pieter Claassen said scattered falls of 10 to 30mm and isolated falls of up to 50mm were possible.

“We’re certainly seeing rain across central and eastern Queensland on the weekend, with it being quite windy thanks to south easterly winds which are driving these showers,” Mr Claassen.

“We will see a little bit more rainfall in this rain event in inland Queensland compared to last weekend where we did see a lot of those unsealed roads closed and dirt roads boggy.

“We don’t expect any riverine flooding in the region, but we are expecting similar impacts or even slightly worse.”

Birdsville is forecast to get a thunderstorm on Friday night and up to 20mm of rain on Saturday.

The rain is being driven by an unusually strong high pressure system centred to the south of Australia, Weatherzone says, that will cause moisture-laden air to flow over Australia from the east in the next few days.

This airborne moisture, which is coming off unusually warm seas to the east of Australia, will clash with a cut-off upper-level low pressure system as it passes over the continent.

The interaction of the upper low and the atmospheric moisture will cause unseasonably heavy rain over a broad area of central and eastern Australia.

Parts of the Outback are set for a drenching. Picture: NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

“It is one of the strongest high pressure systems we are seeing in Australia which is driving that onshore flow. We recorded a reading of 1043.9hPa on Thursday and the current record stands at 1044.3hPa,” Mr Claasen said.

“It is certainly a change in the pattern that we have seen through June and higher rainfall as well, but it isn’t rare to get these strong ridges.”

Strong wind warnings have been put in place across a large stretch of the Queensland coast from the Torres Strait to the Gold Coast.

With two separate areas driving rainfall, the state - including the south east - can expect showers and patchy sunshine until mid next week when dry July conditions are set to return.

Bourke, NSW, is set to receive possibly heavy falls and 30km/h winds on Sunday.

There are gale warnings in place for the West Australian southwest coast, and strong wind warnings for parts of the South Australian coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology has not issued any warnings related to the forecast rainfall.

Perth is expected to get up to 35mm of rain collectively on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The weather system will be a thawing influence for some parts of the southeast.

The tiny town of Liawenee on Tasmania’s Central Plateau recorded Australia’s first -10C of the year on Tuesday, as a serious cold snap blanketed the southeast of the country.

Not to be outdone, Liawenee went ahead and recorded Tasmania’s second-coldest night ever the next evening, clocking a -13.5C.

Originally published as ‘Year’s worth of rain’: Outback set for drenching this weekend