A windy wintery blast is on the way
for south-eastern Australia beginning through Tasmania later today
and extending to Victoria and New South Wales
through the course of tomorrow. We already have severe weather warnings
current for parts of these three states for damaging winds strong enough
to bring down trees or powerlines, put debris across the roads that may lead
to dangerous driving conditions. Those damaging winds are likely to start
through exposed coastal and elevated parts of Tasmania
from later today, gradually extending
to the remaining Tassie warning areas. Southern Victoria and southern
Alpine New South Wales through the course of tomorrow
as that low-pressure system responsible moves north. Now it's also worth noting
that it's already snowing through Alpine, New South Wales, and as that snow combines
with the strong winds tomorrow we may also see the risk of blizzards
above 1900 metres further hazardous conditions. So, what is driving this? Well, I mentioned the low-pressure
system before, and you can see that it's still sitting in the southern Tasman
Sea to the east coast of Tasmania. As it draws close to that east
coast of Tasmania through the course of today,
going into the overnight period tonight it's going to drag those strong winds
and heavier falls across the state. You can see in those southern and eastern parts in particular is where
we're seeing the greatest impacts. Through the course of tomorrow,
the low will gradually drift north into the eastern Bass
Strait pushing the stronger winds and heavy showers across southern Victoria
and south eastern New South Wales. Tomorrow night, going into Tuesday,
the low will brush the south east and then start to move offshore,
taking those strongest impacts with it. However, we're likely to still see
strong and gusty winds and patchy showers
remaining across the mainland south east through Tuesday
and into Wednesday, only gradually starting to see an easing
in those conditions around that mid-week mark. So what rainfall totals
are we looking at over the coming days? Well, generally
modest falls are expected building first through New south through Tasmania, sorry. Heavy falls are possible
across parts of southern and south-eastern Tasmania, however, potentially
leading to flash flooding as we see 50 to 80 millimetres
accumulating. Central eastern and south-eastern
catchments are under a flood watch, meaning that rivers are likely
to respond quickly to that rainfall and those flood watches
may be upgraded to flood warnings. As the low moves north
we'll see the rainfall totals picking up across the mainland,
particularly through south-eastern Victoria
and south-eastern New South Wales. For the most part, moderate
totals are all that's expected, but we could see some locally
heavier falls in the mix as well. Now, in addition to the strong winds
and rainfall risk, it is going to be cold
with this low-pressure system. We're seeing cold
air wrapping around this low, pushing up across
Tasmania and Victoria already. With snow levels expected to drop down to around
seven or 800 meters by later tonight. Through the course of tomorrow
the low will push that colder air up across New South Wales with the snow level
lowering about the Central and Northern Tablelands. This means snow flurries are possible
as far north as the Barrington Tops, although any snow is unlikely to settle
too long on the ground so far north. Further south though, across our alpine
areas, close to our ski fields in southern New South Wales and Victoria,
we may see as much as 10 to 30 centimetres accumulating over the next few days
as that very cold air moves through. It's imperative to
stay on top of all of the warning updates over the coming days as this low
develops, intensifies and then moves away. You can find all of those updates
via the Bureau's website or the BOM social media. Stay safe and we'll catch you next time.