People in Adelaide woke up with a fright to the sound of lightning cracks on Thursday as a wild weather system moved across the southeastern states.
Hot, steamy temperatures were felt in the South Australian capital throughout Wednesday with a top of 32 degrees – the ideal conditions ahead of a large tropical storm touching down later in the evening.
As the storm hit, locals took to social media to share photographs of a stunning lightshow kicking off over the city around 8pm.
The wet weather is expected to continue into Thursday with a top of 24 degrees and a chance of more thunderstorms through the morning.
“Even Adelaide has managed to climb above 30C on each of the last three days, comfortably reaching more than 5C above the city’s November average maximum of 24.5C,” Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said on Wednesday.
“This is the first time Adelaide has had three days over 30C this early in spring since 2019.”
A total fire ban was removed for the Eastern Eyre Peninsula, while areas in the Riverland are still subject to watch and act warnings from the SES as the River Murray rises.
Tornado “on the cards” in Victoria
The Bureau of Meteorology says a tornado is “on the cards” for northern Victoria later in the week.
“It looks like there will be pretty severe weather for northern Victoria this week,” bureau senior forecaster Rohan Smyth said.
“If we did see one (tornado) it would be quite isolated.”
While tornadoes are not necessarily common in Australia, they do occur in “remote areas” away from homes and townships.
Meteorologists are predicting another massive rain system is on the way over the weekend, with the southern states set to cop another drenching.
Storm activity is possible for NSW-Victoria border communities from Thursday through to Sunday.
A hot weekend is ahead for Victoria, with Swan Hill expected to reach a top of 30 degrees.
Severe weather on its way to inland NSW
More thunderstorms are forecast for western NSW on Thursday, with heavy rainfall totals forecast.
“These thunderstorms may be severe with heavy rainfall and damaging wind gusts the main threat,” Sky News meteorologist Alison Osborne said.
The wet weather system will move into outback NSW on Thursday evening and continue to push further east through to Friday, bringing rainfall to most of the state.
The worst will be far from over, however, as a second dangerous storm event is forecast to touch down over NSW next week.
“Rivers will respond very quickly to this rain,” Ms Osborne said.
Residents in flood-ravaged parts of the state are warned to prepare ahead of river rises that will heighten flood risk.
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