Grey nomads can expect to get very hot – or very wet – over the next few days as Australia gets hit by some seriously extreme weather.
Meteorologists say that travellers in northern New South Wales and Queensland can expect to see storms and flash flooding, while South Australia could see its heaviest rain for a decade.
It’s a different story elsewhere though. Perth temperatures could soar as high as 40C as WA swelters though a massive heatwave, and much of Victoria is also expecting a full week of 30C-plus days.
The rain event, triggered by the remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Tiffany, is now also expected to have a big impact in the Centre.
Darwin, which Tiffany brushed last week, will see heavy rain and storms every day this week with up to 20mm on average expected to fall.
According to BOM senior meteorologist Jackson Browne, an upper-level system is set to cut off just over the Nullarbor Plain, triggering heavy rainfall to its east.
“So places like Ceduna, the Yorke Peninsula, Port Augusta will come under the influence of a fairly slow-moving system with the tropical moisture coming down from the Northern Territory,” he told the ABC. “These areas are semi-arid to arid, so we don’t need a lot of rainfall in those locations to cause us some difficulties.”
Four-day totals from Thursday through to midnight Sunday are expected to be from 60 to 100 millimetres, with higher falls in excess of 120mm if you end up under a thunderstorm.
The rain forecast for Adelaide has now been increased. Up to 35mm on Saturday could fall with a further 20mm on Sunday.
Port Lincoln is currently looking at 70mm of rain over four days from Thursday with as much as 85mm in Port Augusta and similar in Whyalla.
Even though rain is forecast for the Lake Eyre catchment, it would likely take more than is currently on the forecast to get the lake to fill.
“The initial losses in some of those catchments would be quite high because of there hasn’t been a lot of rainfall,” BOM’s Jackson Browne said. “So there’ll be a lot of seepage, a lot of evaporation before the rivers can get under way.”
Any Nomad planning to travel the Nullarbor, travel at night and take plenty of water, the bitumen gets so hot during daylight, the tar melts & Tyres burst.
Man cannot control the weather. Just learn to live with the good and the bad