Australia

It's been a damp time for southeastern parts of Australia in the last 3 weeks bringing smiles to many farmers in rural areas but not all residents in the big cities are entirely happy.

For the month of February, Sydney has already hit over 200% of their average monthly rainfall, Canberra has topped 250% and Melbourne just under 150%.

UPDATED
Queensland's South-East is mopping up after some of the highest rainfalls seen in almost a century.

Two deaths have been blamed on the weekend deluge.  A 47-year-old woman was swept away when a wall of water came rushing through Bouldercombe Gorge south of Rockhampton yesterday.

Flooding and strong winds have been reported in north Queensland with cyclone Olga being downgraded to a tropical low.

Olga crossed the coast west of Karumba in the Gulf Of Carpentaria bringing with it gusts up to 110 kilometres an hour.

A spokesman from the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia says while the damage has been light there's still be flooding in the region.

Temperatures across Victoria and South Australia have surged in to mid-40s this afternoon prompting a "catastrophic" fire warning to be issued.

In the south east centre of Keith temperatures hit 44.6 degrees at 3:30pm local time with 44 recorded in Murray. 

Melbourne has 43 degrees this hour with up to 44 degrees in rural parts of Victoria.

There's a catastrophic bushfire alert for South Australia's West Coast today as temperatures head for 43 in some parts of the state.

Brenton Eden from the Country Fire Authority warns the outlook for tomorrow is even worse.

He's told Sky News all possible resources are being deployed during the extreme conditions and there'll be 10,000 firefighters on the ground as well as 15 aircraft.

Forecasters have cancelled a severe weather warning for flooding despite heavy rainfalls across much of NSW, Australia.

While official figures are yet to be updated for the past 24 hours, initial reports indicate that some areas may have already received up to 200mm of rain in the past 24 to 36 hours.

November was a scorcher in many southern and eastern areas of Australia but the temperatures haven't been quite so intense of late. It could be that things are about to change once more...

The 40s have almost become commonplace over parts of Australia recently and today it looks like Sydneys turn.41 degrees is the expected high with sunny and very hot northerlies anticipated for the big city.

Smoke and haze is also in the forecast and the fire danger is again extreme which is keeping local authorities on high alert.

We might be feeling the chill across this side of the Tasman but it's a different story across the ditch...

Spring across the southeast of Australia has become a furnace, breaking records with heatwaves scorching Melbourne and Adelaide and turning vast tracts of bush and farmland into tinder.

It's been a very wet weekend in inland areas of New South Wales, Australia but it appears the worst is over.

Flooding has eased with most isolated communities now having access restored.