More rain is expected to lash NSW as BoM issues severe weather and flash flood warnings
Another wet and stormy weekend is ahead for New South Wales with widespread rain and thunderstorms expected to batter much of the state.
The heaviest downpours of up to 200mm are forecast to hit the South Coast and Illawarra, prompting widespread flash flood warnings.
Continue reading...By Sunday morning the city had recorded 92.8mm of rain this month – fast approaching May average of 117.4mm, BoM says
The wet start to May for much of New South Wales is likely to continue for another week, with a severe weather warning for the state’s south coast and flash flooding on the Central Coast.
Sydney’s Observatory Hill had, by Sunday morning, recorded 92.8mm of rain this month – and was fast approaching the May average of 117.4mm.
Continue reading...Heaviest falls forecast for Illawarra, Hunter, Central Coast and greater Sydney from Saturday evening
An already saturated New South Wales is bracing for significant and widespread rain that could lead to flash flooding on the state’s east coast.
The Bureau of Meteorology says the heaviest falls will hit the Illawarra, Hunter, Central Coast and Greater Sydney from Saturday evening into Sunday.
Continue reading...Final submissions begin in racial discrimination case brought by Mehreen Faruqi against Hanson. Follow the today’s news live
As we flagged earlier, the treasurer Jim Chalmers will today announce foreign investment changes, with approvals to be made quicker and greater scrutiny to be placed on potential risks.
You can read all the details on this from Peter Hannam below:
Right now, we treat investments from right around the world more or less the same. We want to streamline it for the less-risky investments so we can devote much more time and energy and resources to screening the sorts of investments that we’re seeing in critical industries – like critical minerals, critical infrastructure, critical data, and the like.
This is all about strengthening the foreign investment framework to make sure that investment is in the national interest. We want to maximise the right kind of investment, but we want to minimise risk and that’s what these changes I’ll announce today are all about.
Continue reading...Seven months after an El Niño associated with hotter and drier weather got under way, conditions have returned to neutral
The Bureau of Meteorology has declared the El Niño weather event of 2023-24 to be over, with odds increasing that its cooler counterpart, the La Niña, will return by the coming spring.
Conditions in the central equatorial Pacific have now returned to neutral conditions, about seven months after the El Niño had got under way, the bureau said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...About 50 calls to SES for assistance as ‘very localised’ storm reportedly dumped up to 130mm of rain in less than an hour
Parts of Perth broke a six-month-long dry spell on Friday with a fierce storm and flash flooding that left people stranded in submerged cars and caused part of a shopping centre roof to collapse.
A spokesperson for WA’s emergency services said SES volunteers had been going “flat out” to help fire crews with rescues. There had been about 50 calls for assistance over the course of the afternoon.
Continue reading...High court rules in favour of Andrew Giles in long-running case featuring a ‘bizarre’ photo of a signed ministerial brief next to a steering wheel. Follow today’s news live
‘Aid workers are to be protected’
Penny Wong was also asked to provide an update on the work done by Mark Binskin so far, who was appointed special adviser on Israel’s response to the deaths of World Central Kitchen aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.
There are positive engagements and we appreciate that this is a very important issue for Australia. We have been saying for a very long time it is important that international humanitarian law be adhered to.
Under international humanitarian law, as you know, aid workers are to be protected. Demonstrably, there was a deadly failure of deconfliction – deconfliction being the ways in which making sure that defence forces are aware of where humanitarian workers are so they can be protected and there was a deadly failure.
We’ve made no such decision, the discussion I want to have is to look at what is happening in the international community where there is the very important debate about how it is we secure long-lasting peace in a region where which has known so much conflict.
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PM ‘absolutely’ confident supermarket review will reduce prices for consumers
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to ABC News Radio, also weighing in on Craig Emerson’s supermarket review.
Including the Senate review … we’ve already announced our funding of Choice, the consumer organisation, to do quarterly price monitoring, ensuring that consumers know where the best deal is available and using that use of information to drive that competition through the system.
We’ve only got a few supermarkets in Australia and it does concentrate a lot of market power in the hands of the retailers, [so] heavy fines might be the way to go. I certainly wouldn’t stand in the way of that.
And I know many people, particularly in one of the richest cities in the world in Sydney, are doing it incredibly tough when you’ve got the dual hits of both interest rate rises and high inflation.
Continue reading...NSW emergency services minister warns flood threat not over after heavy rain causes flooding in and around Sydney
Hundreds of residents in Sydney’s north-west have been ordered to flee their homes after heavy rain caused flooding in the Hawkesbury-Nepean River catchment.
The New South Wales government has announced assistance measures after heavy rain on Friday and Saturday prompted authorities to open the spill gates at Warragamba Dam.
Continue reading...More than 160 people rescued in eastern New South Wales as deluge causes landslips, flash flooding and rapid rises in rivers
A man has died and more than 160 people have been rescued as a deluge across eastern New South Wales caused landslips, flash flooding and rapid rises in river levels.
Suburbs on Sydney’s fringes are facing the threat of significant flooding after more than a month’s rain fell overnight, while a major landslip in the Blue Mountains has cut off a community.
Continue reading...NSW premier says rising flood levels present ongoing danger for some communities, including in western Sydney
Sydney may have woken up to blue skies on Saturday, but flood levels were continuing to rise across parts of New South Wales with evacuation orders issued after an overnight deluge broke rainfall records.
Suburbs on the city fringes were facing the threat of significant flooding after copping more than a month’s worth of rain while a major landslip in the Blue Mountains left one community cut off.
Continue reading...Drivers have been urged to reconsiders their travel plans ahead of a forecast deluge
Heavy rainfall will drench parts of Queensland and New South Wales this weekend, with motorists urged to stay off roads.
Laura Boekel, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said a trough is affecting both Queensland and New South Wales, producing a significant amount of rainfall across the two states.
Continue reading...Dozens of flights cancelled at Sydney airport and drivers told to avoid non-essential travel as inland low and coastal trough combine
Helen Reid from the Bureau of Meteorology has just provided us with an update on the Sydney rain and said the city could very well receive a month’s worth of rain in one day.
She pointed to the Observatory Hill gauge and said on average in April, there is around 126.5mm of rainfall during the month. Since 9am yesterday morning, there has been 106mm of rain.
We are expecting rainfall over Sydney to increase during today … I would suggest that if we got more than the April average, that wouldn’t be too beyond too far beyond this stretch of imagination.
Continue reading...Man, 71, found near vehicle in Logan as NSW and Qld residents warned to prepare for up to 200mm of rain, thunderstorms and flash flooding
A man has been found dead near his vehicle in Queensland floodwaters as storms bring heavy rain to eastern Australia.
Police found the 71-year-old man at 5.20am on Thursday, after being called to the Logan suburb of Greenbank to conduct a welfare check.
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Aviation firefighters will walk off the job amid revelations many of the nation’s airports are ill-equipped to handle emergencies, AAP reports.
Leaked risk assessments carried out by Airservices Australia reveal travellers at 13 airports including Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide airports, were found to be at extreme risk if there was a fire or aircraft incident because of a lack of firefighting resources.
These leaked documents confirm that Australia’s air travellers face a dire risk every time they set foot on an aircraft in Australia.
Clearly, this significant and ongoing risk to all Australian air travellers is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.
Continue reading...A weather system moving in from the south-west will bring rain across southern regions from Monday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology
The long weekend has brought fine weather to Australia’s capitals – but most cities will see a soggy return to work on Tuesday.
Despite a foggy start to Saturday morning in Melbourne and rain across Brisbane and Darwin, sunshine is forecast for Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide with similar conditions to continue through Saturday and Sunday.
Continue reading...Calm outlook for Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney follows extreme bouts of dry and warm weather across south and west of country
A spectacular Easter long weekend is expected for much of Australia, with warm and sunny conditions forecast for most capitals before rain reaches the eastern states at the start of next week.
Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney can all expect warm and sunny weather during the long weekend.
Continue reading...McArthur River at community of Borroloola predicted to peak at 18 metres, three metres higher than previous 2001 record
More than 100 people have been evacuated from the remote Northern Territory community of Borroloola as it faces dangerous record flooding just days after it was lashed by Tropical Cyclone Megan.
The McArthur River at the township was forecast to peak at 18 metres by Thursday afternoon, three metres higher than the previous 2001 flood record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Continue reading...The cold front has been moving steadily across South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania
Parts of New South Wales will feel a sudden drop in temperature on Wednesday evening as a cold front continues to sweep the south-east of the country.
The cold front has been moving steadily across South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania since Tuesday and will reach NSW on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Meanwhile, South Sudan has ordered schools to shut amid extreme heatwave
A cyclone warning has been issued in northern Australia for coastal communities from the island of Groote Eylandt to the Northern Territory/Queensland border. Tropical Cyclone Megan, which developed in the Gulf of Carpentaria on Saturday, has been declared a category 3 cyclone by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Megan is forecast to make landfall on Monday, but has already brought gale-force winds and heavy rainfall to some areas over the weekend. Groote Eylandt was cut off after more than 400mm of rain in just 24 hours on Sunday.
There is a chance that Megan could strengthen further into a category 4 storm before making landfall, with the potential for damaging wind gusts of up to 125km/h. Megan is the fifth named cyclone in Australian waters so far this season, which is below the average of about 10 by this stage of the year.
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