Near-stationary thunderstorms caused a burst of heavy rain near Newcastle on Monday morning, with more downpours expected in other areas of NSW and southern Qld later in the afternoon and overnight.
Moisture-laden air interacting with a low pressure trough will produce showers and thunderstorms over a broad area of eastern and northern NSW, and soutern Qld during the next 12 to 24 hours.
On Monday morning, several slow-moving thunderstorms develop in the Newcastle region, causing areas of heavy rain and prolific lightning.
Total Lightning Network detected around 210,000 lightning strikes within a 200 km radius of Newcastle between 5am and 11am AEDT on Monday.
Slow-moving storms increase the risk of flash flooding by causing heavy rain over a single location for a prolonged period. This risk prompted the Bureau of Meteorology to issue a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall and flash flooding in parts of the Hunter and Central Tablelands Forecast Districts.
A rain gauge at Hunter Springs, to the west of the Barrington Tops, received 23 mm of rain within one hour on Monday morning. Further south, Williamtown picked up 12 mm in an hour from a separate storm.
Video: Composite satellite, radar and lightning showing thunderstorms over eastern NSW on Monday morning.
Looking ahead, showers and thunderstorms will spread further across eastern and northern NSW and southern Qld on Monday afternoon and evening. Some of these storms could produce heavy rain and flash flooding, although the storms and their impacts will be hit and miss.
Be sure to check the latest severe thunderstorm warnings for the most up-to-date information on the storms and the risk of flooding as the storms progress further north.
Stormtracker is a severe weather solution that can assist you in observing, real-time, any storm or event that has the potential to impact your business. For more information, please contact us at apac.sales@dtn.com.
