Sydneysiders are being warned to plan their travel, with wet and wild weather expected to continue through the week and flash flood warnings aroundNew South Walesafter a relatively warm start to autumn.
The Bureau of Meteorology was forecasting over over 100mm of rain inSydneybetween Tuesday and Friday. Anywhere between at least 5mm to 25mm was predicted for each day.
NSW SES issued flash flooding warnings for the NSW north coast on Monday afternoon, advising rapid river rises could pose significant risks.
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, acknowledged the week of rain ahead, saying on Monday morning he “can’t promise” there would not be disruptions to road and public transport networks.
“That’s an enormous amount of rain falling in a confined, short space of time,” Minns said, and highlighted the impact of climate change in creating “more extreme weather events”.
“It means that we need to be in a position to respond more quickly and more swiftly when they do turn up.”
Sydney residents were urged to plan their route ahead during the week, find alternatives if necessary and allow extra travel time.
The citywas drenched on Sunday night, with almost 60mm of rainfall recorded in Terrey Hills in the city’s north, after 28mm was measured at Observatory Hill and 40mm in the city’s west at Bankstown during the day.
In the 24 hours to 1pm on Sunday, NSW SES responded to 137 calls for assistance, with the majority in their northern zone, between the Central Coast and Nambucca.
The region remained on standby for continued wet weather and strong winds.
Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said Sydney would have “bursts” of sunshine during the week – but “never too far away from the next spell of rain”.
Monday temperatures in Sydney were “on the mild side,” with a maximum of 19C. The rest of the week had predicted highs of 23C and lows of 14C, although Hines warned consistent showers and southeasterly winds would make those predicted ranges feel cooler.
Wet weather was expected to continue across the rest of NSW’s east coast over coming days, with heaviest falls predicted to hit outside the metro area, between Newcastle and Coffs Harbour.
“For that region we have a severe weather warning in place for heavy rainfall and damaging wind, which is ramping up today and expected to last until at least Thursday,” Hines said on Monday.
Minor to moderate flooding was expected on the mid-north coast, with heavy rainfall predicted to fill coastal catchment areas.
Flood watches were also established for several rivers in the Hunter region, after a burst of rain on Sunday night and Monday morning totalled 100mm – a number expected to rise as rainfall continued Monday throughout the Central Coast, Newcastle and the Hunter.
Hines said the weather event’s “prolonged” nature would likely see rainfall accumulate over multiple consecutive days in northeast NSW. “We’re certainly not ruling out the chance that a few rivers could see major flooding by the end of the week,” he said.
The bureau also issued multiple hazardous surf warnings along the NSW coast between Sydney and Port Macquarie, with ewind gusts of up to 80km/h expected to cause massive swell.
Hines said “big powerful waves” recorded on Sunday indicated damaging surf conditions could erode the coastline, particularly between Sydney and Seal Rocks, north of Newcastle.
Hines warned hazardous coastal conditions were likely to increase on Monday afternoon, with “treacherous” conditions ruling out activities such as fishing, swimming, boating and surfing.
Melbournians also had a wintry start to the week as temperatures dropped to an icy 2C on Monday, with 0C recorded at Melbourne Airport and temperatures in outer suburbs getting down into the negatives. Temperatures were not expected to climb higher than 20C, with lows for the week forecast between 2C and 11C.
Sub-zero temperatures were set to repeat on Tuesday and Wednesday morning right acrossVictoria, southern South Australia and part of Tasmania – although the back half of the week would slowly climb up to a “more seasonal” range, Hines said.
While NSW was bracing for floods,South Australia remained very dry, with another predominantly dry week ahead and “just a couple millimetres of rain” forecast for Wednesday.
Hines said modest rains between 5 and 25mm over the weekend in some parts of the state were “not nearly enough to make up for rainfall deficiencies” experienced since the second half of last year.
The chance of “something slightly more significant” was likely to arrive at the weekend – which Hines said would be “a step in the right direction”, but noted the region needed more rain, more often to meaningfully remedy dry conditions.
Adelaide had predicted lows of 6C and tops between 17C and 21C for the week.
Up north, Queenslanders would expect clear skies and sunshine after a wet start to the season. Brisbane’s lowest temperature for the week was predicted at 15C, with tops between 23C and 26C.