Rain, thunderstorms, powerful winds and dangerous surf will affect parts of eastern and southeastern Australia over the next few days under the influence of a northwest cloudband and two low pressure systems.
The images below show a northwest cloudband traversing Australia over the past three days. This massive band of cloud, which was caused by moisture-laden air originating from the Indian Ocean, has brought rain to parts of every Australian state and territory this week.
Images: Visible true-colour satellite images showing the progression of a northwest cloudband across Australia between Wednesday and Friday this week.
The northwest cloudband delivered more than 100 mm of rain to parts of southeatern Australia on Thursday into Friday morning. This enormous stream of tropical moisture and two low pressure systems will now cause rain and storms over a broad area of eastern and southeastern Australia from Friday into the weekend.
Rain from the northwest cloudba
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There has been a noticeable lack of rain in Sydney over the last few weeks, with the city having one of its driest starts to winter on record.
The opening weeks of winter are typically one of the wettest times of the year in Sydney, with June ranking as the wettest month based on historical rainfall.
The first half of this season, however, has been anything but wet.
Sydney’s Observatory Hill weather station only received 22.2 mm of rain between the start of June and 9am on Thursday, July 13.
With no rain expected to reach the gauge before 9am on July 15, the city is about to register its driest first half of winter since 1938 and its third driest on record, with data going back to 1859.
The only years that saw less rain during the first half of winter were 1938 (17.9 mm) and 1918 (14.6 mm).
Sydney’s lack of rain in recent weeks has been caused by a dominance of dry westerly winds and an absence of rain-bearing easterly winds. This wind regime is associated with a