{"id":501482,"date":"2026-02-24T18:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501482\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T18:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:38:18","slug":"half-the-country-on-flood-watch-as-summer-storms-bring-deluge-of-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501482\/","title":{"rendered":"Half the country on flood watch as summer storms bring deluge of rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly half of Australia is on flood watch, with warnings of severe storms for multiple states and territories today, as rare outback drenching continues across central Australia.<\/p>\n

The deluge is being triggered by a large, stagnant low-pressure system sitting over central Australia \u2014 a system that is unusual both for its sluggish movement and the huge amount of tropical moisture feeding it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That set-up is expected to deliver rain across central Australia all week, bringing nearly a year’s worth of rain to some parts of the interior.<\/p>\n

While the heaviest rainfall will remain focused over the middle of the country, the broader system is also spreading wet and stormy conditions further south and east.<\/p>\n

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Large parts of central and eastern Victoria, including Melbourne, are forecast to experience “very dangerous thunderstorms producing intense rainfall” over the coming hours.<\/p>\n

“It could certainly be a wet afternoon, wet evening through Melbourne, through large parts of Victoria as well,” Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) senior forecaster Angus Hines said.<\/p>\n

“Flash flooding is definitely a possibility there for today, and there is a flood watch for Victoria for today as well in case any of those rivers start to rise as the rain sets in across the river catchment areas.”<\/p>\n

These storms will linger into tomorrow, shifting into inland New South Wales, including Canberra, according to Mr Hines.<\/p>\n

A second burst of enhanced rain and storm, stemming from the main system over central Australia, is expected on Friday, impacting South Australia and Victoria.<\/p>\n

“That one is likely to move into mostly southern SA, including Adelaide. So quite a lot of rainfall into the southern half of SA on Friday, maybe pushing into some parts of Victoria as well,” Mr Hines said.<\/p>\n

Heaviest falls through outback Australia<\/p>\n

While the storms will impact multiple states this week, the most significant rainfall is expected across the middle of the country.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Flood watches have been issued across nearly half the country. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Parts of central Australia are forecast to receive the equivalent of six months to a year’s worth of rain over the coming days, as the slow-moving system continues to draw in deep tropical moisture.<\/p>\n

Widespread flood watches have been issued for every state and territory, except Tasmania.<\/p>\n

Multiple severe weather warnings of heavy to locally intense rainfall, which may lead to flash flooding, have also been issued \u2014 spanning an area bigger than France and Belgium combined.<\/p>\n

The huge system, which can be seen on the satellite as a mass of spiralling clouds, has been spilling rain across multiple state borders to southern parts of the Northern Territory, south-western parts of Queensland, northern parts of South Australia and north-west NSW.<\/p>\n

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Central Australia has been gathering rain in the order of 100-150 millimetres in the last few days.<\/p>\n

Significant falls in the 24 hours to 9am Tuesday121mm Winnathee, NSW94mm at Jervois Station, NT85mm at Bellalie, QLD36m Moomba, SA<\/p>\n

Mr Hines said those types of falls could be replicated again in the coming 24 hours, with a severe weather warning in place for continued heavy rainfall across central parts of Australia.<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/p>\n

Parts of South Australia’s north have been hit by flash flooding caused by heavy rainfall. (Supplied: Almerta Station)<\/p>\n

There is no sign of it easing up any time soon, with even more rainfall forecast to continue until the weekend for parts of central Australia.<\/p>\n

“Although we’ve seen a lot of rain accumulating in recent days, there’s a lot more to come before this weather event is all done and dusted,” Mr Hines said.<\/p>\n

“For a lot of areas over outback Australia, we’re probably looking at at least half their year’s tally of rain, if not a little bit more than that, through this week.”<\/p>\n

The BOM has noted there remains uncertainty around the location of the heaviest falls, as well as the future movement and strength of the low-pressure system that is driving this weather.<\/p>\n

Masses of tropical rain feeding the system<\/p>\n

While bouts of outback rain are not unheard of, this one stands out as unusual for a few reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Firstly, it is much longer lasting than normal, with rain expected to continue until Friday for some, marking a week of downpours across inland Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dark<\/p>\n

A severe storm hit Escombe Downs near Corfield in western Queensland on February 21. (Supplied: Peter Ashman)<\/p>\n

This is far longer than the usual time period of a few days, according to Mr Hines. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s very uncommon that we’d see this prolonged spell of rain over those outback areas, and I think that’s reflected by just how much wet weather we’re seeing,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing really coming through to push this [weather system]\u00a0out of the way at the moment, so it just kind of spins in place.”<\/p>\n

The other unusual feature of this rain system is the huge amounts of moisture feeding into it, which Mr Hines equated to the likes of northern Queensland during its monsoon. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Vast<\/p>\n

Lake Nash Station in the Northern Territory flooded on February 22. (Supplied: Erin Gibson)<\/p>\n

“I mean, the values [of moisture in the atmosphere] that we’re seeing around the low pressure area in the southern NT and the northern parts of SA \u2026 are really, really high,” he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Those are values that we would typically only\u00a0see across Far North Queensland, the top end of the Territory, and maybe the north end of Kimberley during monsoon times. Those are very tropical.”<\/p>\n

Having that much moisture available in the atmosphere means there is the potential for rain to become heavy if a weather system is able to tap into it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly half of Australia is on flood watch, with warnings of severe storms for multiple states and territories…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[252136,18630,43,44,9087,15157,17711,2876,41,39,42,40,1192],"class_list":["post-501482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-deluge","tag-flooding","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-outback","tag-rain","tag-storm","tag-summer","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}