A strong cold front moving across southern Australia is expected
to bring widespread severe thunderstorms to parts of eastern Australia
on Good Friday and ushering a wintery weekend for the Easter break.
Having a look at the current satellite imagery,
we can see this front moving across South Australia at the moment, attached
to a low pressure system deepening over the Bight waters.
This is supported in the upper atmosphere by an upper level low,
also over the Bight waters, extending areas of moisture across the south east
and giving a real enhancement to any showers and storms developing.
In terms of what that means for our weather.
We can see that for the rest of Thursday,
we're going to see those showers and storms extending across south east
South Australia and western and central Victoria.
It's really Friday that we're anticipating the most severe weather
however, as that front continues to move through central and eastern Victoria
and New South Wales.
Through the morning and afternoon, we're going to see extensive areas of thunderstorms all the way through Victoria
up the eastern New South Wales coast and pushing into south east
Queensland as well.
Storms may become severe in these areas,
producing heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding,
damaging wind gusts that could bring down trees or powerlines and large hail.
It's essential this weekend whether you're at home or traveling out
and about for the Easter break,
to keep an eye on the radar so that you know when storms might be reaching you.
And also keep an eye on the Bureau's warnings page so that you can stay up
to date with any warnings that are issued through the day tomorrow
and across the weekend.
After Friday, though, we're going to see those storms
starting to contract away from the coast a little bit,
as this system starts to move offshore.
We are going to see a very strong south
to south-westerly flow move
in, though in the wake of this system, which is going to be supported
by a secondary front moving up through Saturday.
This means cool and windy conditions moving in through Saturday,
particularly for Tasmania, southern Victoria, elevated parts
of New South Wales and parts of south east South Australia as well.
It is possible that we might need to issue further warnings
for cool and windy weather across that part of the weekend.
So again, stay up to date via the Bureau's website.
At this time, late Saturday, going into early Sunday,
we're also going to see the coldest air moving up across the south east,
which means a lowering snow level.
Snowfalls possible about 700 above sorry, 7-800 metres across Tasmania
and for the mainland above 14 to 1500 metres, mainly impacting the eastern
Victorian Alps and the south east New South Wales Alps as well.
Through the rest of Easter Sunday though,
we're going to see conditions starting to ease through inland
and northern New South Wales clearing from Brisbane and also inland Victoria.
But showers will continue across Tasmania and southern Victoria.
Through the remainder of that Easter Sunday, pushing towards Easter Monday,
these systems are going to move well off into the Tasman Sea
with a continuation of the easing trend of showers
pulling towards south east Victoria and Tasmania.
However, with this cool southerly flow moving up, it is possible
we could continue to see small hail with any showers that move
through the south east going into Sunday and early Monday as well.
Having a look now at the temperatures over the next few days,
we are going to see very cool conditions moving in.
Firstly, in the wake of this system as it moves across the south east,
maximum temperatures only expected to reach the high teens
to low twenties across the south east states on Saturday.
But going into Sunday, when that coldest air moves through,
that is when we're going to see our lowest maximum temperatures.
Easter Sunday is looking very cold, particularly for Hobart,
Melbourne and Canberra with those very cold conditions
continuing to impact this far south eastern and pocket of the state.
With a lot
of significant weather on the way tomorrow and over the next few days,
it's essential to stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings
by the Bureau's website and the BOM weather app.
Make sure you listen to all advice from emergency services too,
particularly if you're out and about and having a lovely Easter weekend.
We'll catch you next time.