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Australia prepares for weekend of weather extremes, including a cold snap

Hamish SpenceNCA NewsWire
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Camera IconNot Supplied Credit: Supplied

Western Australia's north west is preparing for a severe weather event on Wednesday morning that could potentially cause flash flooding.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning of heavy rainfall for people in the Pilbara and parts of Gascoyne, North Interior and South Interior districts.

Wild Weather
Camera IconWA’s north west will experience heavy rain on Wednesday morning. Ross Swanborough Credit: News Corp Australia

It has led to a flood watch being put in place for parts of the Pilbara and Central Desert areas, with concerns the forecast rain could cause flash flooding, hazardous road conditions and damage properties.

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BOM said “six-hourly rainfall totals between 70 and 100mm” are likely for the Pilbara, with isolated totals of up to 120mm potentially along the coastal fringe.

The cloud band is forecast to weaken later in the day, but it is expected to return over the weekend and impact the state’s south west as well.

“Another north west cloud band setting up on the weekend and plenty of showers around the south west … bringing wet and windy weather from Sunday through to Tuesday,” Sky News meteorologist Rob Sharpe said.

“All up the rain totals are substantial, 50 to 100mm around Perth and Bunbury.”

On the other end of the country a cold front is moving through the south east, meaning parts of Tasmania, Victoria and Southern NSW are experiencing cold, wet and blustery conditions today.

But while the weather is forecast to ease and clear out on Thursday, it means those areas will subsequently be faced with a “frost threat”.

On Thursday the frost is expected to impact much of southern and central NSW, northern Victoria and a small portion of Tasmania.

But the frost will move into more parts of Victoria and Tasmania the following day and could linger for the whole weekend and into next week.

“Some locations (will be) seeing frost for three of four days in a row I would expect, before it all starts to clear up by the time we get to the middle of next week,” Mr Sharpe said.

While Queensland and NSW have been experiencing a brief reprieve from heavy rainfalls, that is expected to change over the weekend.

Rain of up 10 to 20mm has been forecast by BOM for both Brisbane and Sydney, with areas along the states’ coastlines expected to be affected.

“It will be soaking wet on election day in the east of Queensland, but for eastern NSW we’ll also be seeing a whole bunch of showers coming and going,” Mr Sharpe said.

“Through the next eight days, as the wet weather will continue a little bit after that (the weekend) as well, we’re talking about 50 to 100mm for much of the NSW and Queensland coastlines.”

Marine wind warnings are also in place for every state today, but in neither of the territories.

Originally published as Australia prepares for weekend of weather extremes, including a cold snap

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