Prosper in a dynamic world
Search

Storms barrel towards three capital cities

Severe storms have ripped through Melbourne and Canberra on Thursday morning, delivering brief but heavy downpours in many suburbs, with the strong chance of more to come in both cities, as well as Sydney.

The storms in Canberra and Melbourne struck just after 9 am, as you can see on the radar loop below which covers the period between 8 am and 10 am Thursday.

The timing meant that commuters weren’t too badly affected, however as mentioned, we haven’t seen the last of the storm activity for the day.

The BoM has issued numerous warnings, the latest being a severe thunderstorm warning for the Melbourne area at 9:53 am Thursday, noting that the first severe thunderstorm has cleared to the east of the metro area, but another storm is approaching the Ballarat area and may become severe.

You can see that next storm marching through Ballarat in the general direction of Melbourne in the two-hour loop below, which shows the radar from 8:30 am to 10:30 am.

At the top of the loop, you can also see the storm that hit Canberra heading eastwards with bands north of it heading towards the greater Sydney metro area.

How much rain has fallen in this morning’s storms?

We wrote on Wednesday that the city and most suburbs of Melbourne only saw a millimetre or so of rainfall on a night when much heavier rain fell further north.

The city of Melbourne has again only seen 1.4 mm in Thursday’s first storm, while up to 15 mm fell in the outer eastern suburbs. These totals may well increase in coming hours as the next band of storms approaches.

Meanwhile Canberra has received a total of 15.4 mm on Thursday morning as we write this story, and that tally also seems likely to increase with another band approaching the national capital.

To find out bout DTN APAC and its weather forecasts and alerting services, please visit our website or email us at apac.sales@dtn.com.

Latest news

Satisfy your weather obsession with these news headlines from around the nation, and the world.

Fastest strengthening El Niño on record: Impacts on Australian monsoon timing and wet season planning

Australia’s Mining and Resources sectors are bracing for a wet season shaped by one of the most rapidly developing El Niño events on record.    Looking back at how the strongest El Niño events in Australian history have played out, it becomes apparent that mining operations in Australia should be planning for a later monsoon […]

Australia’s warmest winter on record pushed gas to a 22-year low

Australia just had its warmest winter on record across large parts of the country, and the mild weather produced the lowest gas output since 2004 and cut wholesale electricity prices nearly in half. Despite the unusually warm winter, demand hit a new NEM-wide winter record of 24,220 MW — but ample rooftop and grid solar meant the […]

Remote WA mining regions hit with nearly 300,000 lightning strikes over past days

WA’s remote mining regions have been impacted by thunderstorm, lightning and heavy rainfall only detectable using remote sensing methods. Nearly 300,000 lightning strikes detected across WA DTN Total Lightning Network (TLN) detected over 288,000 lightning strikes above Western Australia between Wednesday and Sunday, August 26-30, 2026. A vast majority of this lightning was observed over […]

A warm, light wind spring ahead for the NEM

A strong El Niño and an unusually stable Antarctic polar vortex are setting up a spring signal of light winds, elevated solar output, and a real risk of high-intensity heatwaves for the NEM.   This forecast could be a major flip to what the National Electricity Market (NEM) has experienced so far during Winter 2026. On 1 July 2026, the NEM […]