It is set to be a thoroughly wet few days for eastern Australia as the latest cold front marches across the country.
The front has already brought rain to the west and is expected to tie into tropical moisture as it sweeps across South Australia today before descending on the eastern states tomorrow.
"As it moves over SA it may begin to tap into some tropical moisture from the Indian Ocean and the Coral Sea and become a little bit more active," said Christie Johnson, senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).
"We're encouraging everybody to stay across our warnings.
"There's actually quite a large part of SA, Queensland, maybe even southern parts of the Northern Territory, New South Wales, and even northern Victoria that could see severe thunderstorms."
Beware: The volatile nature of thunderstorms means the lead time on those warnings will likely be short.
According to Ms Johnson, the greatest risk from those storms is heavy rainfall leading to flash flooding, while damaging wind gusts are also a risk.
Large hail is also a possibility, more likely further north.
"We're expecting rainfall totals across the south to be widespread, [measuring] 15 to 40 millimetres," she said.
"There will obviously be some locally heavy falls in that as well, particularly in areas that get thunderstorms."
This may not sound like a lot, but, according to Ms Johnson, it will be enough.
"Particularly the rain that falls over already saturated or flood-affected areas — particularly through inland NSW and Queensland and parts of Victoria — could cause renewed flooding or prolong the flooding that's occurring there," she said.
"If you're anywhere near those flood-affected areas, or [if] you live close to rivers and streams, be aware of the potential for river rises with this rainfall."
Plenty of rain ahead
Luckily though, it looks like this system is likely to be short-lived, clearing off the mainland on Friday.
"It will probably take a little bit longer to clear Tasmania, but it'll clear through Queensland and NSW quite quickly," Ms Johnson said.
"We will see some showers continuing through the south-east, particularly Tasmania, Victoria, and southern NSW into the weekend.
"But the front itself will have moved away."
It is the latest round of what is likely to be a wet few months ahead.
The BOM's spring outlook suggests most of eastern Australia is highly likely to have above-median rainfall over spring.
If you are yet to prepare for the severe weather season, this would be the time.
