Moderate to heavy rain is set to bring the best falls in months over inland Queensland over the next few days, with this rain possibly reaching Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales later this week or by the weekend.
After more bushfire conditions ravaged eastern Australia over the weekend, the weather patterns are set to shift as moisture increases over the east of the nation.
Areas of rain and embedded thunderstorms are spreading acorss far western QLD today along a trough, however falls are only expected to be patchy with many areas likely to miss out.
However as the system moves a little further east, it will collect more moisture with more widespread and heavy totals likely tomorrow. Those over the Central West, Maranoa & Warrego and eastern Channel Country are likely to fare best with some areas receiving 24 hours totals of 20-30mm, with isolated falls of up to 100mm possible.
On Wednesday, the rain areas are likely to become less widespread with the extra heating allowing thunderstorms to become more prominent. This will mean falls will become patchier due to the convective nature of thunderstorms, however further daily totals of 15-30mm are possible, with isolated falls of 50-100mm under heavier thunderstorms.
For many areas, this will likely be their best rain since autumn, however there is the risk that those under the heavier cells could see their best rain in years.
However, there is now good alignment with models that this moisture is likely to link up with a trough moving across the country from Friday and into the weekend to produce moderate to heavy falls across VIC, TAS and NSW, before possibly shifting into QLD again early next week.
Whilst it is far too early to accurately estimate rainfall totals for this part of the system, any rain will likely help the bushfire situation with around 90 bush and grass fires currently burning across NSW.
Image 1: 72 hour rainfall forecast from the ACCESSR Model to 10am EST Thursday 31 October, 2019 (Source: Weatherwatch Metcentre)