Batten down the hatches: Ferocious winds set to batter Australia
With ferocious winds “thousands of kilometres long” set to hit southeast Australia for the next 24 hours, make sure you’re prepared for 100km’h winds and waves of up to 15 metres high.
Severe weather warnings are in place for large parts of Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales, including areas that are close to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart and Geelong.
There are flood warnings that are out for parts of Victoria and Tasmania.
Cape Grim on Tasmania’s west coast has already recorded winds of up to 95km/h and Essendon Airport in Melbourne’s north recorded a blast of 57km/h.
⚠️ #Warning current for damaging #winds across the southeast including #Illawarra, #SouthernTablelands, #SnowyMountains and #SouthCoast. Windy conditions likely to persist until later Thursday. Check the latest at https://t.co/Z11hCDKat1 pic.twitter.com/SUtLd5w9V8
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) 20 August 2019
“Gale force winds will continue to last for the next 48 hours as a pair of cold fronts whip across southeast Australia” said Sky News Weather channel senior meteorologist Tom Saunders today to news.com.au.
“There’s a long stretch of gales extending thousands of kilometres, and as a result, we’ll see massive waves along the NSW coastline averaging eight metres with maximums waves of 15 metres on Thursday and Friday,” said Mr Saunders.
The cold fronts are set to bring wind but not much rain. Some heavy rainfall is forecasted for Tasmania, but light showers are set to hit Melbourne and no rain is forecasted for Sydney.
Melbourne is set to reach a high of just 13 degrees on Thursday and a low of 5 degrees at night heading into Friday morning.
Sydney’s average temperature will reach 20 degrees but will possibly be windy. Lows are looking to dip to 8 degrees.
Perth is hitting a solid 25 degrees on Thursday, but heavy rain is set to sweep through overnight and into Friday.
Darwin misses out on the bad weather entirely, as it will be sunny with a high of 32 degrees over the next few days.
Canberra, however, is set to prepare for a freezing minimum of -5 degrees on Friday morning.
Hobart is looking at a high of 11 degrees on Thursday but bracing itself for a low of 2 to 4 degrees over the next few nights.
Adelaide is set to be cloudy with highs in the mid to high teens.