Sever weather warnings across multiple states as heavy rain and thunderstorms develop

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Hi, welcome to your Australia-wide daily forecast. This is daily forecast Australia and my name's Lisa. Thank you for joining me for your Wednesday forecast. I'm sorry I wasn't here on YouTube yesterday. I had a really busy day and it feels really good to be back here doing a daily forecast today. So, it's the 27th of May. Thank you for joining me and let's get into today's forecast. Our main weather story today is this area of low pressure. It's near the Bass Strait and it is bringing widespread cloud, showers, gusty winds across Tassie today. Also, there's going to be heavy rainfall possible across the northeast and the east coast districts.

[00:00:36]Further north, we've got more active weather here centered across southern Queensland and northern New South Wales.

[00:00:43]We're going to have repeated showers, possibly severe thunderstorms, locally heavy rainfall. All of this associated with this ongoing activity right now.

[00:00:52]Meanwhile, we've got a cold front and the across the southern ocean here. It's associated with this low. It's pushing towards the southwest WA bringing strengthening winds, increasing shower activity, also some isolated thunderstorms. It's going to happen from about Geraldton through Perth down towards Bunbury later today. So, that's a lot to cover. Let's get straight into it with a combined synoptic and rain and thunderstorm layer section of our forecast. Now, the nation's weather it's being driven by this ridge here. This ridge of high pressure it's extending across inland Australia. We've got the high centered over here WA this morning and another weak area of high pressure sitting over here across New South Wales. This is maintaining generally settled conditions but only for some parts of the interior today. We've also got this weaker low pressure in the Bass Strait. This is approaching this is because of the approaching southern ocean system down here. It's generally creating unsettled conditions across the southern and eastern coastal regions.

[00:01:54]So, across Tassie we'll start here. This area that I'm just talking about, this low pressure area here. It's directing showers and periods of rain into the northeast along the east coast as well. That's happening this morning. Moderate to locally heavy rainfall is affecting areas around Bridport, Gladstone, Scottsdale, and St. Helens earlier in the day before this activity is going to gradually contract southwards during the afternoon and into tonight. By tonight and into tomorrow morning, that'll be Thursday, the focus of all of this wet weather, it shifts further south and east along the coastline here. So, Bicheno, Oatlands as well, and down towards Hobart as this low slowly weakens and drifts southeastwards.

[00:02:40]The Bureau has already issued a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall across the Furneaux Islands, the northeast, parts of the east coast, all of these districts here today because of the elevated amount of moisture wrapping around this weak low pressure system.

[00:02:54]It's going to bring the risk of locally intense rainfall during this morning and this evening. If we look further north now, the most active weather is across Queensland and northern districts here of South Australia.

[00:03:07]A trough is interacting with this moist onshore flow and the daytime instability. That's all generating these widespread inland showers and thunderstorms. We can see it here, what's going to be firing throughout the day. It's going to happen across central and southeastern Queensland and into New South Wales. So, the thunderstorm activity, it becomes increasingly organized around the afternoon. There's going to be heavier pockets likely around the Darling Downs, around the Granite Belt as well, and all of these adjacent inland districts. Some of these storms may become locally severe with bursts of very heavy rainfall. The rain and the thunderstorm activity, it's going to continue to track east and southeast through tonight and through the overnight period. It's going to extend into the mid north coast and the north coast of New South Wales. Showers are going to become more widespread though along the coastal fringe. So, rain and thunderstorm activity could extend as far down as Sydney later tonight. Across to Western Australia now, the conditions here, they become mostly stable beneath this inland high pressure that we've already discussed.

[00:04:11]However, we've got this cold front associated with this deep low. I know it's all the way down here, but it's going to have its impact on the southwest of the state. So, what we're going to see, and that's going to happen predominantly through the afternoon and evening. We're going to have a band of rain extending. We can see it here, really nice long sort of northwest-southeast rain band and associated cloud. We'll get to that in a moment. It's going to extend along this whole coastal region.

[00:04:38]Uh, this is the leading edge of this south southern coast southern ocean system.

[00:04:43]Showers and isolated thunderstorms are going to increase from Geraldton. So, if you're in this area here, this is where I want you to listen up. So, Geraldton right down to Perth extending towards Bunbury and Albany during the afternoon and the evening with the heaviest rainfall pockets likely to take place around Perth, uh, Bunbury and these nearby inland districts. Uh, all right, the front the front is gradually going to weaken overnight as it continues to push eastwards. Finally now, before we move out of this section, we will just quickly discuss South Australia here because there's going to be some scattered shower activity continuing through the southeastern districts, all this eastern inland area here right up to around That's going to happen during the daytime hours today.

[00:05:29]This activity may become more widespread during the afternoon, but it is going to ease later in the evening under the influence of that inland ridge. Okay, so that was synoptics and rain and thunder all wrapped up in one. Moving into temperatures now, we are noticing once again that the heat is easing across northern WA. So, today Kununurra is set to reach 28° 27 at Broome, 24 at Karratha, and 23 at Carnarvon. Further south, cooler air is wrapping around the southwest as we've just discussed, keeping Perth a little cooler around 20° today. Esperance also 20, and inland around Warburton and all these surrounding areas, the air is going to the air mass is cooler and the Warburton should reach around 18 today.

[00:06:14]Heading into the northern territory now, Darwin will reach 29°, 29 also for Noonamah, 21 at Yulara, and then cooler in uh Alice Springs, 17° this afternoon.

[00:06:25]All right, into Queensland. Temperatures remain warmer across the Cape. Weipa will reach 30, Normanton 28. Cooler conditions are going to continue for the inland regions, so we're seeing a drop-off here around Mount Isa, reaching around about 22 and 20 in Birdsville.

[00:06:41]Along the tropical coast, Cairns should reach mid-20s, also for St. Lawrence, and 24 at Yeppoon. Along the southeast, so Noosa is set to reach 22, 22 also for Southport on the Gold Coast. All right, into New South Wales. Mild conditions do dominate the state today. Broken Hill will reach 16°, 18 at Wilcannia, 19 in Lightning Ridge, and 17 in Orange.

[00:07:04]Warmer for Orange, warmer than it has been. Canberra will reach 17 also this afternoon.

[00:07:09]Along the coast now, Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie both set to reach 21°, 20 at Newcastle, and 19 in Sydney, while Eden on the far south coast is also set to reach around about 19°.

[00:07:21]All right, into Victoria. Cooler temperatures continue, especially around the alpine regions. Both Falls Creek and Hotham Village reaching around about 10° today. Mildura should reach 17, 18 at Swan Hill, and 13 at Ballarat. Melbourne is forecast to reach 16° today, 15 at Torquay, and 14 at Apollo Bay.

[00:07:40]Heading into South Australia, Coober Pedy will reach 17, 17 also for Woomera, 19 at Port Augusta, and 18 in Adelaide.

[00:07:48]Along the coast, Mount Gambier will be around about 17°, 19 at Port Lincoln, and 17 in Cygnet. Finally, into Tassie, temperatures remain on the cool side statewide, particularly at areas of elevation. So, Lake St Clair will reach just 9°, single digits today. Launceston 16, Hobart top of 13. Along the wetter east coast for today, St Helens will reach around about 15, while Arthur River in the northwest is set to reach 13°. Moving into our wind forecast now, strongest wind gusts, we're going to go straight into our wind gust layer because there's not It's certainly not nothing too dramatic today, but I do want to point out a couple of areas to you, so uh wind gusts today are expected across the southwest, and that's associated with that activity coming across that we've already talked about for uh Western Australia, we've got this frontal system moving in. We've got gusty northwesterly winds. Uh they're going to strengthen through this afternoon and through this evening, particularly near the coastline. So, Margaret River in particular could see gusts approaching 55 to 60 km/h. Bunbury and Mandurah also seeing gusts around about the 45 to 50 km/h as this rain band really uh comes across with those embedded thunderstorms.

[00:09:08]If we look now across at northeast and Tassie, this area also will see gusty conditions as we've got the southern flank of that low here. The tight It really tightens the pressure gradient.

[00:09:19]We can see that as we look at our synoptic overlay on this section as well. So, it's going to impact areas around Devonport, Launceston, Gladstone, Cape Portland, all seeing gusts around about 50 to 60 km/h at times. It's mainly going to actually take place this morning for these regions. It's going to take place especially around those heavier showers and those exposed where those heavier showers are falling and around the coastal areas that are quite exposed along these locations. All right, we are also I'm watching this gusty pocket of inland wind here just across the red center. Not a particularly populated area of the nation, but we're talking about the border region here of South Australia into the Northern Territory. This is the time of year where people start doing their Caravan trips, their road trips in around throughout Australia. So there there is there are people out there that are going to feel those gusts today.

[00:10:13]The winds are going to become locally fresh and gusty around the middle of the day in this region that I've just been talking about. So it's not hot by any means with these associated winds.

[00:10:22]Elsewhere across the country, we see the winds are generally lighter generally lighter with the higher pressure around these parts here. We can see with the color grading as well.

[00:10:32]All right, elsewhere let's just have a quick look. There was there was another region I wanted to point out. We can see here that the Pilbara is windier than surrounds, but nothing compared to what we were reporting a few days ago up to a week ago. There are some I'll jump into our marine wind warnings. We've got across Tassie strong wind warning in place for the northeast. I think I may have mentioned this. Sorry, I can't remember if I have or not. We see here with the isobars, but it's particularly because of these rough marine conditions along the coastline. We've also got a marine wind warning extending through parts of the Bass Strait affecting the mainland here as well extending right up here to East Gippsland coast of Victoria also into New South Wales for the Eden coast. So we're talking Southern New South Wales now. Fresh to strong winds continuing especially in the exposed coastal areas all associated with this low pressure.

[00:11:23]In WA, I should have mentioned this earlier also a marine wind warning in place for Perth local waters, Geraldton coast, and Bunbury coastline because of that system coming across.

[00:11:34]All right, now now let's talk about one of my favorite things to talk about, which is clouds. We're going to look at our cloud forecast for the nation today.

[00:11:40]We do continue to see this very active cloud band. I mentioned it, it's pushing in from the southwest. It's this thicker cloud, it's associated with the rain, potentially some thunderstorms embedded in all of this. It's going to come across around the mid-morning Western Australian time today, before it expands further inland and southward through this afternoon and into this evening. If we look at South Australia's now South Australia right now, we've got clouds this morning. Cloud cover generally it's going to decrease throughout the day, particularly through the Outback and yeah, all these northern inland regions. The clearer, drier air, all of this is going to develop into clearer skies as we move through the day. If we look further east, much of Tassie, even Victoria, central and eastern New South Wales, all beginning the day underneath widespread thick cloud this morning.

[00:12:29]It's associated with the low.

[00:12:32]As we move through the afternoon, the skies generally will start to clear across much of Victoria and parts of New South Wales as this cloud band shifts offshore and it weakens. But Tassie, you unfortunately, if you're in Tasmania, you can expect to remain under fairly extensive cloudy skies for much of the day. And it's just because of all of this persistent moisture associated around that lower pressure area.

[00:12:57]Across into or north into Queensland now, moderate to thick cloud it continues here across central and southeastern districts. All of this big expansive area here, very much obviously associated with all of that rainfall and thunderstorm activity. It's all happening in these inland regions here and across the southeast. The cloud is going to shield this cloud shield is also going to extend into the we're talking here a little bit yeah, down into northern New South Wales as well, obviously. If we look elsewhere though, central central to northern WA as well as much of northern territory especially in the central region here, largely remaining cloud-free today because of the high pressure. Yes, but we are headed for that time of year where we do get some really nice clear and stable conditions.

[00:13:43]Okay, enough on that. Let's move into our rainfall accumulation. So we're looking at the next 48 hours. The heaviest totals nationally are continuing to focus across parts of southern Queensland and the northern New South Wales where we're going to have those repeated. That's what really builds up these accumulations. We've got repeated showers and thunderstorms redeveloping over the same areas. That's happening both today and tomorrow.

[00:14:08]Standout rainfall is happening in this border region once again. So we're talking between Goondiwindi and Texas exclu- extending southwards towards Yetman and North Star. Some of these areas here in this rain corridor are forecast to receive more than 100 mils over the next 48 hours. That's really really significant rainfall for these parts of the country.

[00:14:30]Along the New South Wales coastline, I know everyone's sick of it but more rainfall on the way extending from Yamba to Coffs Harbour or especially here Woolgoolga. Really high rainfall coming around 90 mils is possible over the next 2 days. It's all of this onshore flow combining with the shower and thunderstorm activity that's happening in the north and the northwest.

[00:14:52]Down into Tasmania, we see here the rainfall totals there generally lower when we're looking at the Euro. We're specifically looking at the European model right now.

[00:15:01]I would have thought that we would see it really light up here across the northeast.

[00:15:06]Areas between Launceston and Gladstone not really expected to record the higher totals that I was thinking we were going to see. What we do see here St Marys, Dunalley extending southwards down towards Cygnet and Southport. Rainfall totals here anywhere between 10 to 25 mils are likely over the next 48 hours, but it's just interesting to see that that northeast coastline is not forecast to have the accumulations based on what we're seeing today on the on the rainfall layer. Over in WA now, we've got this frontal rain band. It is bringing accumulations to the southwest.

[00:15:41]So, the highest accumulations are expected along the west coast around Mandurah, uh Perth metro region here.

[00:15:48]Scattered totals really anywhere between 5 and 10 mils. Outside of those wetter regions, much of South Australia, the Northern Territory, Northern Queensland, even most of Victoria. Victoria is skipping out largely over the next 2 days for rainfall accumulation. So, all of those other areas largely remaining dry. Okay, we're back on track. That was your Wednesday forecast. I hope you enjoyed it. I will be back tomorrow, and then unfortunately, I'll be way away again on Friday. I am due for passport renewal, and it is not complicated I I live outside of Australia at the moment, but it isn't a complicated process of getting a new passport. The one thing that is difficult is getting the new photo because here in the US, the photo dimensions for your passport are different, so I can't just go down to my local chemist and get a new photo.

[00:16:35]I have to go to the one photographer on this half of the country who does photos for Australian passports. So, unfortunately, that means I'm going to miss out on Friday, but I'll be here again tomorrow. So, thank you for watching. It feels great to be back, and I'll see you again in tomorrow's forecast. Bye-bye. [music]