Australia

There is good news for the serious drought in New South Wales - good rain is coming. A midlatitude trough over the eastern interior of Australia will deepen and interact with a surface low pressure system extending from northern Queensland. It will bring fair amount of rain over interior southern Queensland and northern New South Wales on Friday and Saturday.

A vigorous frontal system has brought some of the strongest wind gusts in several years across the Apple Island.

Winds peaked at 113km/h in Strahan, 98km/h in Yarram and 96km/h in Grove, making it the windiest day in four years for these stations in Tasmania. 

Even though we are not yet half way through August, Perth has already recorded higher than average rainfall.

The 20.0mm of rain that fell last night tipped Perth above average.

A total of 133.0mm has been collected so far this month, as of 09:00 WST this morning, equating to about 108% of the average August rainfall.

The word drought is a such an emotive word- but what does drought mean? 

A cold front from the Tasman Sea is tracking towards the western side of New Zealand today after delivering a blast of wind and rain to southern Australia in recent days. The front will move onto the South Island and sweep the western side northwards to reach the North Island on Wednesday.

Heavy rainfall is expected in Westland from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning.

A considerably large low covers the Southern Ocean south of Australia and will bring strong winds across southern coastal Australia for the next few days ahead. The main front system moves through Sunday morning and Monday, then weakens somewhat as it crosses the Tasman Sea towards New Zealand on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A flurry of cold fronts will sweep across southern Australia during the next week, causing multiple bouts of rain, thunderstorms, damaging winds and snow.

While this type of weather is typical in southern Australia during winter, there has been a lack of rain-bearing system during the first two months of the season.

Updated 10:44am --- Australia's run of warmer than average weather is about to briefly stop, but New Zealand has more warmer than average weather on the way.

A deep trough is now passing over Australia and it's pushing temperatures up well above average, also bringing rain and wind to the south and thunderstorms too.

Scattered thunder showers have been observed under a wide and long cloud area caused by a cold front.

A deep trough is passing through the southwestern part of Western Australia today. A well-marked cold front will sweep the area during this morning then strong winds kick in.

A short-period intense rain is forecast (30mm/h is expected) in the vicinity of the front.