Wet weather sweeping across Sydney and monsoonal rains swamping Darwin and north Queensland are creating the conditions for another sodden summer week for much of the country.
A south-easterly flow moving off the water brought moisture on to Sydney shores, condensing in the atmosphere as cloud and shower activity.
Miriam Bradbury, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said showers “did ramp up a little bit through the early hours of [Monday] morning”.
“It was a wet night, but those falls were patchy.”
Heavier rainfall moved across northern Sydney, with 151mm falling on Kurrajong Heights in the lower Blue Mountains in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday.
Rainfall totals were lower closer to the CBD, with Observatory Hill recording 62mm.
Brisk winds also moved across the water on Sunday evening.
Wayne Druery from Surf Lifesaving Australia warned that conditions could rapidly change. On Sunday, athletes who had participated in a surf ironman and ironwoman competition at Maroubra beach in Sydney saved 25 swimmers from a rip about 100 metres offshore.
A group of 10 participants, coaches and competitors used boards and rescue tubes to stabilise the swimmers before inflatable rescue boats arrived and escorted them to shore.
“Today, not only did these swimmers benefit from the great skills of patrolled lifesavers and lifeguards on the beach, but also [from] our elite ironmen and ironwomen,” Druery said.
South-easterly winds were expected to continue to be “a little bit strong at times” on Monday but would ease into the afternoon, Bradbury said.
Slightly heavier showers were forecast to move through the city and to the Central Coast and Illawarra coast during the day, but would become lighter and more isolated in the afternoon.
The week ahead for Sydney is showery, with heavier rain expected on Tuesday.
A new weather system was expected to approach on Wednesday, increasing the risk of storms. By Friday, the wet weather was set to ease, with only a slight chance of showers along the coast on the weekend.
In northern Australia, a tropical low off the coast of Darwin and monsoonal rains in far north Queensland were expected to deliver large volumes of rainfall.
Some areas south of Darwin could experience up to 500mm of rain between Sunday and Wednesday, with widespread falls elsewhere in the region totalling 200 to 300mm.
A severe weather warning was issued for the Top End, including Darwin and the Tiwi Islands, with damaging wind gusts and monsoon squalls also expected.
Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist with the BoM, said the combination of the low-pressure area and predicted thunderstorms could lead to damaging winds.
“We could see damaging wind gusts in excess of 90km/h through the course of Sunday and into Monday, as it stays windy into the new week,” he said.
A monsoon trough spanning from Western Australia across to the far north Queensland coast was expected to bring heavy rain where residents are still reeling from flash flooding in December caused by ex-Cyclone Jasper.
Totals of 100 to 200mm of rain and frequent widespread thunderstorms were forecast through the week, which could lead to flooding.
“As we track the rainfall across these river catchments, they may well respond with flood responses through the course of the next couple of days,” Hines said.
Flood watches were in place for parts of the Northern Territory’s western Top End and areas to the south-west, west and north of Cairns.
