No matter where grey nomads are in Australia at the moment, one thing is for sure … the weather is throwing up some surprises!
Forecasters warned in advance that the monsoon low, which has been hammering the Kimberley region of Western Australia, is heading east bringing heavy rain to south-east Queensland and northern NSW … and the humidity is off the charts!.
The monsoon rains in northern WA brought more than half a metre of rain (564mm) to Broome since Sunday and have cut off roads and even rail access to parts of central Australia.
That included 326mm of rain in the 24 hours to 5am on Tuesday.
Daily rainfalls of up to 100mm – often months worth of rainfall – are hitting desert towns, such as Ernabella near the South Australia/Northern Territory border, in hours.
The Daily Mail reports that some remote towns could be out of reach for days or even weeks. Towns impacted include Marla, Coober Pedy, Roxby Downs, Leigh Creek, Moomba and Marree.
An estimated 20 tonnes of food and other emergency supplies has been airlifted by the Australian Defence Force into opal-mining town Coober Pedy.
Sydney can expect showers for the rest of the week, while Melbourne is getting some temporary relief from searing temperatures before things heat up again. It’s a similar story in Adelaide, and in Perth, where the mercury is expected to top 37 degrees on Friday.
It’s also been relatively hot and humid in much of Tassie.
Queensland is forecast to have above-average rainfall over the next three months.PIC: BOM / ABC
In South Australia, of course, the heavy rain has been exacerbating the flooding situation initially sparked when the remains of ex-tropical cyclone Tiffany passed through a week or so ago.
According to Jonathan How, senior forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology, Australia is still in a La Nina pattern, so the waters to the north of the country are still very warm.
“That has basically manifested in very humid and wet conditions for pretty much all the country except for south-western WA,” he said.
The La Niña is now at its peak and is expected to hang around until early autumn, which is helping to drive a wetter than average outlook for the east coast, Top End and much of Queensland.
Last month’s mean temperatures for the country as a whole were 1.1 Centigrade degrees above the January average.
