El Niño Set to Bring Record-Breaking Rainfall to Australia's East

This year remains on track to become Australia's wettest El Niño year on record, and the first ever with above-average national winter-spring rainfall.

October has been particularly damp thanks to an ongoing outbreak of showers and thunderstorms forecast to affect more than half the country during the next seven days.

Severe Weather Conditions

Already this week, Sydney has been drenched by more than 100 millimetres of rain, central Queensland has been lashed by severe flash flooding, while outback storms brought destructive winds to Alice Springs.

The focus for storms today is Queensland where an influx of tropical moisture could pave the way for intense cells, and the risk of flash flooding, most likely over inland regions south of Longreach.

Over the central outback today, including around Alice Springs, a drier atmosphere could result in strong downdrafts and gusty winds, while onshore winds bring further showers to the eastern seaboard, extending from Cape York Peninsula south through Brisbane and Sydney to the NSW South Coast.

Weather Forecast

Stormy weather will then continue to affect Queensland and parts of NSW on Sunday — a pattern which will repeat well into the new week.

This stagnant run of stormy days is somewhat atypical for spring when systems are normally mobile and day-to-day weather is extremely variable.

The current lack of variety, which is more characteristic of autumn, is due to a high-pressure system which stalled in the southern Tasman Sea on Friday.

A high pressure system has planted itself in the Tasman Sea, and will direct moist air onto the eastern seaboard through the week.