National Weather Update 17 July 2024: A front racing across the south, & cool and dry in the north

 

G’day from the Bureau.

Let's check out the weather forecast for the second half of this week.

The main feature we will focus on - a front rising across the south, starting in the west and moving to the east in the next couple of days.

Elsewhere across Australia's north, dry, but very cool conditions will continue.

Throughout the week so far the action on the map has been in this area here, with this low pressure in the Tasman driving windy, wet and snowy conditions across Australia's east.

But on Wednesday night and Thursday we will see the weather settle across this part of the country.

The wind subsides, the rain clears up but at the same time that that's happening, another front is working its way onto the south-west, moving through Perth overnight tonight, the early hours of Thursday morning with a band of rain, possible hail, maybe a thunderstorm as that moves through and then through Thursday, continues to move eastwards and we will see this band of rain leaning across Western Australia by the end of the day.

A few showers in behind it mean that the wet weather doesn't completely clear out of Perth.

Elsewhere, high pressure has taken control, lots of sunshine across the remainder of Australia.

Then on Friday, this front continues to move eastwards, covering a lot of ground as well, reaching southern parts of South Australia around Adelaide about the middle of the day.

So, some rain there in the afternoon. Strong winds as well.

Then the second half of Friday, rain and winds through Victoria, including Melbourne, Tasmania, including Hobart, maybe even some wet weather reaching Canberra right at the end of the day on Friday.

We shouldn't see any of that rain reach Sydney, but the wind will pick up there before the end of the week and it's clear, sunny and cool across the top half of the country.

This is a look at how much rain we might get out of this front as it races across the southern states.

This is total rainfall from Wednesday to Friday.

So, completely dry across Australia's north and centre actually but if we zoom in to the south-west, we can see a notable drop of rain around the south-western corner.

In particular, you might be able to see this darker red shading from about
Geraldton down to the far south-west.

Places in that area, particularly along the coast, might see 30 to 50 mm of rain as this front does pass through in the next 24 to 36 hours.

More broadly speaking, 5 to 15 mm around large parts of the Wheatbelt.

 And across the south-east, the numbers are similar, perhaps a touch less than what you might see in Western Australia, but 15 to 25 mm for large parts of Tasmania, Victoria, southern South Australia.

And if you're in the mountains or looking to head to the mountains, it's likely that the rain across the mountains will fall as snow.

So, it could be another nice top up of snow after we've already had some earlier this week, perhaps another 10 to 20 cm around those alpine resorts.

This front is also going to generate some very strong, gusty conditions.

Here's a look at wind gusts for the next few days.

In particular, we're looking at those yellow and orange areas, maybe even some red areas, starting in Western Australia on Thursday, then moving into South Australia on Friday.

Some gusty conditions around Adelaide and the Loftys, and then into Victoria, Tasmania and parts of New South Wales Friday night and Saturday, setting us up for a windy weekend across parts of eastern Australia.

 

And to round out what we're looking at for the next few days, we will finish with temperatures, and it was very cold this morning, Wednesday morning, in Queensland and the Northern Territory, and it's going to be very cold again for northern Australia.

Single digit temperatures tomorrow morning, stretching as far north as about Townsville and then the daytime temperatures are on the cooler side as well.

We see 19°C in Mackay, certainly below average for this time of year, and mid-teens for central parts of Australia, low teens down on the south-east and about 18°C in Perth.

Another cool morning on Friday.

Take a look at this pale blue to white shading right through the north-east of the country.

1°C through all of these spots, 3°C, Mount Isa, 2°C Alice Springs. A very chilly start once again on Friday.

Mount Isa

Alice Springs

 

It's cool through New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania as well, although, that's a bit more seasonal for the time of year.

That's a bit more unusual for this time of year. A little more mild out west. Friday afternoon, most places will see temperatures a couple of degrees warmer than what they got on both Wednesday and Thursday and that warming trend will continue into the weekend.

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