New South Wales, Australia battered by storms all week, more on the way

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Sydney radar this Friday arvo. Bring your brolley!

If you've been in Canberra, Sydney or Brisbane in recent days and weeks, you've seen storms just about every afternoon.

This weekend, more thunderstorms, hail and powerful winds are expected in New South Wales set to last until early next week. Saturday is likely to be the worst day with heavy rains across one third of the state.

It comes after three days of severe weather in New South Wales that saw the State Emergency Service receive about 300 calls for help overnight and has led to thousands of volunteers being put on standby.

© Roland Taylor

A montage of lightening strikes in Sydney

Crews will be stationed at flash-flood hotspots in Sydney, while the Belubula River in the central west region will be on flood watch on Saturday.

"Definitely not a good afternoon for golf tomorrow," SES spokesman Phil Campbell said.

"While it's still sunny, clean your gutters and downpipes, secure loose items in your yard or balcony like trampolines and also check your roof is in good repair."

Meanwhile large hailstones, heavy rain and damaging winds have been forecast for Brisbane and parts of southeast Queensland, just a week after a supercell smashed the city causing up to $1 billion worth of damage according to Brisbanes's Lord Mayor Graham Quirk.

Queensland's Bureau of Meteorology says severe thunderstorms have hit parts of Brisbane's outer northwest, including Mount Nebo, Highvale and the D'Aguilar Ranges.

"These thunderstorms are moving towards the northeast," it says. "Damaging winds, heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding and large hailstones are likely."

But why is it so bad?

We put that question to Chris Webb, forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology in Sydney. He started spouting confusing weather jargon at us like these people often do so we said, whoa, slow down and talk English please.

This he eventually did and we now translate for your afternoon reading pleasure.

Basically, the wind has been blowing from the north all week. That makes it hot. That northerly wind has also been carrying a bunch of moisture and humidity down from Queensland. That makes it sticky.

There has also been a trough in central New South Wales. No, not a big thing that cattle are all drinking from, but a part of the atmosphere which has low air pressure, and which is therefore acting like a giant basin where all the air converges.

All that air has to go somewhere. So what happens is, it goes up. That turns the moisture into liquid for a bunch of reasons which you probably learned in school. And because it's all unstable, you get heaps of thunder and lightning as part of the show.

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Spooky

Anyway, what you really want to know is: are we going to have storms that ruin your BBQ tomorrow? Sadly the answer is probably yes. Maybe have your barbie early in the day or soemthing.

And take care if there's lightning around, won't you. The SES is warning people to keep clear of fallen power lines, storm drains and creek beds. They're also advising people not to ride their bike or walk through river or flood water.

For more information, visit the Bureau of Meterology's website at www.bom.gov.au.

As for next week, it's looking drier at this stage, which is good news.