‘Days of severe storms’ to rumble across Australia, with hail and millions of lightning strikes expected | Environment

Days of severe storms have been forecast for every mainland state and territory in Australia this week, with possible wind gusts, heavy rain, large hail and flash flooding on the cards.

Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said “millions of lightning strikes” were also expected across the country.

“We have a number of low pressure troughs sitting over Australia that are interacting with very warm and humid air coming in from the oceans surrounding Australia, which are warmer than average for this time of year,” he said.

In Sydney, temperatures were forecast to remain in the mid-20s for the rest of the week and into the weekend. Melbourne could expect to reach 25C on Tuesday and 20C on Wednesday, warming up towards the weekend with temperatures in the 30s forecast for Saturday and Sunday.

But thunderstorms were forecast to continue across parts of New South Wales, south-east Queensland and central Australia on Tuesday, while northern and Western Australia were set to bear the brunt of low pressure troughs in the latter half of the week.

Dean Narramore, senior meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology, said Tasmania was the only state that may escape the wild weather.

“We’re just looking at days of severe storms across parts of the country, and particularly north-east New South Wales and south-east Queensland for the coming days, with Wednesday probably being the bigger day,” he said.

Severe thunderstorms could mean damaging wind gusts and heavy rain with the potential for flash flooding or large hail, he added.

There was also the potential for severe thunderstorms in central Australia – near the border of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory – with large hail, damaging winds and heavy rainfall likely, he said.

Meanwhile, in parts of northern Australia, severe to locally extreme heatwaves with 40C temperatures were forecast for Marble Bar in Western Australia throughout the week, expected to peak at 45C on Wednesday.

“We’ll start to see that ease as we head towards the weekend, at least for the Kimberley and the Top End,” Narramore said, though heatwave conditions were expected to continue around Cape York into the weekend.

The recent State of the Climate report, released by the bureau and CSIRO, said global heating caused by burning fossil fuels was fuelling warmer ocean temperatures and longer, more intense heatwaves.