Australia: This Massive Storm Is Now Moving East...

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:01]Good day folks. My name is Josh from Cyclones Oz and this is your detailed Australiawide weather forecast update for Monday the 1st of June 2026. Winter and severe weather season is upon us. So for the latest and greatest severe weather information with advanced warning times and head over to cyclones.com.au/subscribe and sign up to our annual plan with lots of great information over there. But first things first, Western Australia has been impacted by one of the most significant extrropical systems seen in the past 5 years or so. We've had multiple reports of wind gusts in excess of 130 km an hour. In fact, down on the southwest Capes, they briefly approached 140 km an hour last night as this huge area of extrropical low pressure impacted the state's southwest. Perth was hit by damaging to locally destructive wind gusts throughout yesterday. And we had some significant reports of damage with power outages, uh localized flooding, particularly around the river and through our lowlying western suburbs, multiple trees down bins, trampolines, sheds thrown around, the whole 9 miles. It was actually some of the most considerable damage seen from a low pressure system that we've had in the Southwest Landivision seen in recent years. I actually went out there and chased it and I have to say it's one of the most violent storms that I can recall. I mean not that by memory bases as long as say some of you in the comment section down below. But this storm here definitely did stack up and it had a punch and unfortunately what we saw uh it was a classic example of complacency. people that have been let down by warnings in previous months and years across our southwest uh land division and they were just skeptical as to whether or not this storm would deliver any kind of significant impact at all. And it sure did. When it came through it really did pack a punch particularly to our coastal region. So a great example of this storm and the complacency has left some pretty good impacts or some pretty negative impacts I should say across our states southwest including through the Perth metro area.

[00:01:43]So going forward as we head in towards severe weather season, make sure you are getting your updates from reputable sources and that you are prepared and well informed when severe weather uh takes aim at your location. Most storms don't need your attention like this one did, but this one here certainly did pack a punch. So what's actually going to happen with this system right now?

[00:02:00]Well, it is still rather intense here.

[00:02:02]You can see a pressure of about 987 millibars as it moves down into the Great Australian bite. The system is quite broad and disorganized this morning. a bit of a change from what we were looking at just 12 hours ago yesterday afternoon, but it's expected to continue moving out into the bite where it's going to become even broader, larger, and more rainfall dominant as it moves in towards southeastern Australia.

[00:02:21]In its wake, we're expecting another area of low pressure to begin to approach the southwestern land division later this afternoon and into this evening. This one here looks very weak and small in comparison to the big daddy down here into the great Australian bite. This system here in itself will actually pack a little bit of a punch particularly to our south coastal region between Augusta out to about Esperence including Albany. Later tonight into early tomorrow morning, we could actually see some brief periods of severe weather conditions with damaging wind gusts and briefly heavy rainfall redeveloping in these regions chiefly through the early hours of tomorrow morning. I'll get to southeastern Australia in just a second. I'll finish mopping up with Western Australia right now. Speaking of those wind gusts, you can see later tonight we begin to see those winds increase again. They fully extend over the south coastal region by early tomorrow morning. And you can see here gusts offshore approaching 90 km an hour around the actual core of the low pressure system. They briefly arise above 100 km an hour here. And whilst that's a fart in the wind in comparison to the storm that has just gone through, this still constitutes severe weather here. And for locations between Augusta at I would say about Hopetown at this point in time including Albany, Walpole, Denmark and Windy Harbor and all adjacent coastal and just inland communities. We could be looking at another potentially brief but still significant severe weather threat. Keep in mind in the wake of these systems here we haven't had a good time to you know mop up and you know clean up.

[00:03:35]There'll be no doubt a lot of branches you know just waiting to be dropped in the next big storm coming through. And again while this storm is not the significant one in comparison to the one that we just had overnight. This one here still constitute severe weather and could pack a punch as this low moves through. I'd be surprised if a separate severe weather warning was issued, but expect turbulent conditions going into tonight and early tomorrow morning across their south coast. Impacts to the Perth metro area will be minor throughout the course of today. We'll see showers and storms ease up the coast. We're expecting, you know, finer conditions to begin developing later tonight. Some clearer skies, less rainfall, you know, uh much more pleasant scene is expected to develop through the Perth metro area later tonight. And then by early tomorrow morning, we'll briefly see a rainband with maybe moderate falls extending into the Perth metro area, coinciding with rush hour traffic back to our uh week of work. We're not expecting anything too crazy through Perth. Wind gusts maybe up to about 60 or 70 km an hour as that frontal system moves through between 7 and 9:00 in the morning. Rainfall should be no greater than about 5 mm. So impacts overall to Perth are going to be pretty minimal. High pressure expected to quickly develop through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning in this system's wake. And this is expected to give us a much calmer and settled picture towards the middle and latter portions of this week. So a bit of re of a reversal to the taste of winter that we have just experienced. Apart from the swells and waves still being very huge in the lingering influence of that low pressure system, boating conditions around local and protected waters around Perth and particularly around Geograph Bay will actually become a lot calmer as we head out towards the later portions of next week as this high pressure system begins to redevelop. By the 8th, we're expecting another frontal system to brush through the southwestern land division. This one here looks pretty standard for winter, all things considered. You can see peak winds here about 50ks an hour. Gusts pushing 70 or 80 km an hour. A little bit stronger as you head further south, maybe getting up to about 115 km an hour. Again, this one might briefly go severe warn across our southwestern capes here for damaging wind gusts through Monday or Tuesday at this point in time, but it doesn't look like anything too crazy. And when compared to the system that we have just had go through the southwestern land division again pretty weak. Like I said this looks like a pretty standard winters weather system coming through.

[00:05:40]Although it does look like it gathers a bit of steam into the great Australian bite. Forecast modeling at this point in time is a little bit inconsistent. The GFS of course being quite progressive.

[00:05:48]But we do have some frontal activity coming through as we head out towards the later portions of next week and into the uh next weekend and into the early portions of the following work week. Uh modeling is yeah pretty consistent on that. could bring some rainfall, but again, this one here doesn't look like it's going to be the high-end weather impactor like the front that we have just seen. That'll do it for Western Australia. There is a little bit of weather as we head out to about the 15th of June in terms of maybe some rainfall and some northwest cloudband activity, but that's a little bit too far into the forecast to accurately ascertain what's going to happen there. We'll have more coverage on that as the week rolls on.

[00:06:21]Let's have a look at the satellite imagery right now and understand what this low is doing. So currently it's situated down here into the great Australian bite. It's a pretty messy and disorganized system. Like I said, it has unraveled, but there is a little bit of convection on its southern and far southern flanks here as it pushes a lot of moisture into South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria. This is going to be quite important as we head out into the future. We're likely to see a lot of moisture pushed into the eastern seabboard, particularly into the southeastern seabboard as we head out towards the earlier portions of uh this week. So you can see here mid-level moisture values at the 700 HPA mark indicate a very humid air mass extending over New South Wales, Victoria, portions of Tazzy and South Australia. This will translate to rainfall. When we're looking at rainfall patterns here, it's important that we understand the moisture profile of the atmosphere, not necessarily on the surface, but up into the mid- levels where that moisture originates and precipitates from as rainfall. This, as you can see, translates into broad areas of shower and some isolated thunderstorm coverage through New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tazzy, and the Australian Capital Territory. And again, whilst this low pressure system is pretty broad and disorganized in nature, it is expected to bring some widespread shower and thunderstorm activity through Monday, Tuesday or today, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to our southeastern land divisions of Australia. Uh it doesn't again look like a severe weather threat. Rainfall is going to be the main talking point here.

[00:07:39]widespread falls between 15 to 30 mm are generally expected through New South Wales, Victoria, Tazzy and the uh South Australia. We are likely to see isolated heavier rainfall accumulations approaching 50 mm in traditionally wetter locations. Again, this is spread out over about 4 days. So rainfall in itself is not expected to be that heavy at this point in time. Coastal areas will once again cop the brunt of the rainfall. For Siguna out to Mount Gambia, we are likely to see coastal areas between about 25 to 30 mm or so are in that ballpark. Adelaide and the Mount Lofty Rangers could increase to as much as 50 mm of rainfall again just given their favorable predicament for rainfall moving through. Most of Victoria should see at least 10 millime apart from the far east where rainfall is going to be protected by the Great Dividing Range. Falls around Melbourne should be closer to 25 mm into the Great Dividing Range. Falls between 50 and 100 millm are a possibility with snowfall accumulations possible above 1,400 m.

[00:08:30]Most of southern New South Wales should see between 5 and 15 mm increasing to 15 to 30 mm through the great dividing range particularly into the western portions of the great dividing range.

[00:08:39]Our eastern seabboard again protected from the mountains there. So little rainfall accumulations are expected.

[00:08:44]Decent rainfall from that moisture should translate as far north as the northeastern and northwestern slopes of New South Wales. We might even see falls around Inverell and Glenn Inis which would really like a little bit more rainfall up in those regions as heavy as 25 mm. Although again, rural inland communities are expected to be a little bit drier. It is going to be those traditionally wetter spots into the exposed western flanks of the Great Dividing Range. Tazzy's north coast should pick up about 50 mm of rainfall.

[00:09:09]The western coast as well about 50 ms or so. The eastern coast, which has recently been plagued by some pretty heavy rainfall, should be on the lighter side, but again falls between 10 to 20 mm. Rivers are still flowing quite hard through there. So do keep that in mind, particularly if we do see some heavier shower and thunderstorm activity coming through. We might see some localized river and flash flooding concerns. We'll have a look at this again on the rainfall map. You can see this pretty moderate band of rainfall moving through. It's going to really extend through South Australia and Victoria throughout the course of today. Starting things off out into the west and moving further in towards Victoria as the day goes on. So rainfall coverage becoming more and more widespread as we head out towards the later portions of today.

[00:09:46]This will then eventually extend into Tazzy. Tomorrow is going to be mainly showers, but we will see areas of rainfall through the north coast of Tasmania and around Mount Gambia through Western Victoria and the lower southeast of South Australia. Rain and thunderstorm coverage should increase tomorrow through New South Wales, particularly into the western portions of the Great Dividing Range. As we head out towards Wednesday, rainfall contracts down to the coastal regions as well as through portions of the Great Dividing Range. A stronger westerly flow does come through which could bring some gusty winds and some cool temperatures to South Australia and Victoria, but overall showers are expected to remain mostly light. Thursday sees showers contracting through to uh through Victoria and Tasmania and easing out of South Australia and New South Wales. And then you can see through Friday and into Saturday this low pressure system moves into the Tasman Sea and then eventually off towards New Zealand with shower coverage extending into the Tasman Sea as a result. Again, rainfall isn't expected to be too heavy through New South Wales. However, a strong southerntherly flow should develop around Friday and into Saturday, which is going to make boating and fishing and marine based activities borderline hazardous. Big swells, big waves are expected, maybe some cooler temperatures and some strong winds associated with showers offshore. But again, coastal locations and especially inland locations remaining high and dry from this potential shower surge or surge of moisture coming through. High pressure then redevelops into the Tasman Sea.

[00:10:59]This could spell a little bit of rainfall for Queensland, particularly as a southeasterly flow arcs up through the weekend and into early portions of the following week. But again, this high pressure system doesn't look like it's going to be too influential. Nothing like the major strong high pressure systems that we saw through midmay.

[00:11:14]Overall, the severe weather risk as mentioned is pretty minimal here through southeastern Australia, but do keep an eye on the weather. There could be some stormy conditions and some turbulent weather throughout the early portions of this week, particularly today, tomorrow, and then for coastal locations through Wednesday. And just checking in on that wind accumulation, which indicates the strongest wind gust during a selected period of time over the next 5 days. We will see some blustery conditions here through the South Australian uh western coast on the nullore, but that's pretty typical for this time of the year.

[00:11:40]Nothing too serious there. Elevated portions of New South Wales should see some stronger wind gusts between 70 to 90 km an hour. And of course, some gusty winds through the Bass Strait, but overall winds are not expected to reach those severe thresholds across most of southeastern Australia. Definitely not the prolific wind event that we saw through southwestern Australia if that's a question that you're asking. So, stormy, miserable, yeah, maybe. But overall, severe or dangerous weather conditions, not at all. So there's no need to stress out about that. Other interesting nuggets of weather happening around Australia, well, if clear skies and fine weather is your thing, then you're in for a treat through Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia. Clear skies have led to some very cool starts, particularly through Queensland over the last couple of days. We saw another very chilly morning here through most of Central Queensland with our convective forecast modeling indicating overnight temperatures dipping to or well into the single figures. But in a few spots, especially this morning, we saw a couple of spots getting down towards 0°, which is I mean, it's Queensland. They do see some cooler temperatures, but it's still very cold for Queensland. A very uh dominant stable air mass situated over northern Australia. So, expect calm conditions to continue for those regions. I just want to waste a couple more minutes of your time here talking about the system that just went through Western Australia. Like I said at the start of the forecast update, very disappointing to see the reception of this storm. I mean, whilst the forecast was, you know, uh, for lack of a better term, nailed, I mean, we knew this system would be strong, we knew this system would be severe, we knew it would be quite impactful to the southwest land divisions. To see the amount of comments rolling in saying, well, it's winter or we see this all the time, that was quite uh, you know, underwhelming to see. I mean, at the end of the day, we are built for these sort of severe weather conditions through southwestern WA, but when you've got a storm of this caliber coming through, unprepared people are going to feel some pretty significant impacts. Again, we saw lots of trees come down yesterday, sheds, trampolines blown around, and we told you, strap things down. Trampolines in the backyard, bins, strap them down. Make sure that they're not going to become airborne and missiles during the night when the winds were going to be at their most severe. Inland locations obviously sped fared a lot better. We knew that that was going to happen, but coastal locations really did feel the brunt of this weather system coming through here.

[00:13:41]Um, and as for the reception towards uh the titling of bomb cyclone here, I mean, I'm I'm standing by that. This was actually a bomb cyclone. Again, we discussed the meteorology behind a bomb cyclone in previous forecast updates.

[00:13:52]The reception was generally pretty good, but I did note a few comments of people that obviously hadn't watched the video.

[00:13:57]So, again, quite disappointing to see.

[00:13:58]It's always important to watch the full forecast when you're trying to get an understanding of the weather system coming through. But, I do hope that that's kind of the kick in the guts that Western Australia needed ahead of severe weather season to really show us that these storms do mean business. And when we say severe weather is coming, you should listen. Uh, and that's just not me. That's uh, you know, the uh, defest, that's the bomb. uh and all of these other reputable sources of information here through southwestern WA. We told you days in advance that this system was going to be severe and strong and it sure was. It did pack a punch. Um so yeah, if you have enjoyed the coverage then please do let me know in the comment section down below. I know a lot of people have and I really do appreciate that. If you got any feedback or concerns, let me know in the comment section down below as well. Go check out that new website link in the pinned comment and in the description. But that's going to do it for me today. Have a wonderful remainder of your long weekend in southwestern WA. a wonderful day back at work and a first day of winter across the remainder of Australia. And I'll catch you on the next storm.