Australia

A Tropical Low is currently estimated to be 80km north of Cape Don and 225km north northeast of Darwin and moving west at 6km/h.

There is a possibility of a tropical cyclone developing during Friday as the tropical low moves into the Timor Sea, west of the Tiwi Islands.

A Cyclone Watch has been declared for a developing tropical low for the Tiwi Islands.

It has taken until March 28th for Sydney to cool below 16 degrees, 87 days into the year, the longest it's taken in more than 120 years, according to weatherzone.com.au.

The temperature in the city dipped to 15.9 just before sunrise this morning, the first time it has cooled below 16 degrees this year so far.

Unfortunately for the summer lovers there is now a very low chance of any extreme heat for the southeast states of Australia until at least next Spring.

Tasmania's east and north coasts have been inundated with the heaviest rain in up to 49 years.

Northeast Tasmania has received scattered falls of 100-300 mm in the 24 hours to 9am on Thursday, thanks to a deep low pressure system moving over the state.

Australia is again being hit by severe weather with a man being killed yesterday following a flash flood reports the ABC.

The news organisation says a man in his 40s died after being washed into a creek during flash flooding across the New South Wales Illawarra and south coast.

Roads were closed and power was cut to hundreds of people as the storm roared across the region.

South Australia is in for widespread rain in the next few days, possibly leading to flooding in the north, and giving Adelaide its wettest start to the year in more than half a century, according to weatherzone.com.au.

I have a very unscientific way of calculating the number of natural disasters in the world at any given time - my workload.  My role at WeatherWatch.co.nz isn't as straight forward as other weather forecasters - there is a heavy news element to it too.

Severe storms have been battering central New South Wales this afternoon, bringing frequent lightning and drenching downpours.

These storms are linked to the severe weather that the state saw yesterday, which brought falls as high as 12mm in 10 minutes periods, gusts in excess of 80km/h and even some hail over southern parts of the state.

Munich Re, the European-based Australasian reinsurance market leader, says recent Australian and New Zealand disasters will cost it about $4.3 billion.

But the natural catastrophes will cost the wider insurance industry up to $15.8 billion, the firm estimated, excluding Cyclone Yasi and last month's Christchurch earthquake.

Philip Duncan teams up with NZHerald.co.nz to explain how Japan's devastating tsunami rippled out across the Pacific - plus he shows how many aftershocks have occurred, where they've occurred and the area responsible for all the activity and tsunami.