Strong winds battering south-east Australia ease as cold weather blasts Tasmania
The strong winds that have battered much of south-east Australia are due to ease after days of damaging gusts.
New South Wales, South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania have faced strong winds since Saturday, with some areas registering gusts of up to 130km/h.
The low pressure system and the cold air stream that brought the damaging winds has begun moving out into the Tasman Sea, although a severe cold front is expected to hit Tasmania on Tuesday.
The worst of the strong winds is over for most of the region, according to Ben Domensino, a meteorologist at Weatherzone, who said it could stay windy on Tuesday but this should be easing across the region by Wednesday.
Domenisino said it was “unusual” for such strong winds in spring, adding that such strong westerlys are usually characteristic of the colder months: “It’s been a wild few days, but it’s now finally easing.
“These these strong low pressure systems are more common in the cooler months of the year, when the belt of very strong westerly winds that flows between Australia and Antarctica moves further north in winter and further south in summer.”
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But the winds and the sunnier conditions these regions have experienced in the past couple of days have had some positives.
“Even though the winds have been strong and dangerous, they’ve also flushed out a lot of the moisture and rainfall over the Murray-Darling Basin, bringing some respite to those flooded areas in northern Victoria and western NSW,” Domensino said.
The NSW State Emergency Service is urging residents to remain vigilant, with the SES already attending to 644 storm-related requests for assistance in the 24 hours to Tuesday.
Teena Bergin, spokeswoman for the SES, said that most of the calls were for downed trees and roof damage, adding that while the danger was easing there was still some concern in elevated areas of the state.
Some areas registered gusts of more than 100km/h in the past three days, including Melbourne airport on Saturday.
On Monday Sydney Observatory Hill registered gusts of 70km/h, while Nowra and Kiama recorded gusts of more than 100km/h.
The strongest gust in that period was recorded at Hogan Island in the Bass Strait, which registered gusts of 131km/h on Monday.
The Bureau of Meteorology has maintained its severe weather warning for damaging winds in south-eastern NSW and central Tasmania on Tuesday, warning residents to secure outdoor items and to be prepared for potential power outages.
A meteorologist at the bureau, Jonathan How, said it would remain windy around the ranges, and that temperatures would continue to remain lower than seasonal averages.
“It’s been a pretty cold and wet spring,” he said. “And this is a continuation of the cold conditions we’ve seen this spring, which is tied to La Niña, which is still active, and the negative Indian Ocean dipole, which has left a lot of moisture in the air.”
How said there was good news though, adding that the forecast for the early weeks of summer expected a marked improvement on the wet and windy spring.
“Thankfully, though, we are looking at calmer conditions heading into last week of spring into early summer – it is looking to warm up and be drier.”
The bureau also confirmed that a “polar vortex” over Antarctica has been affecting weather in southern Australia, drawing weather systems south and bringing more rain and wind.
Dr Andrew Watkins, head of long range forecasts at the bureau, told the Guardian that stronger winds over Antarctica had been partly to blame for a wetter than usual year.
“This polar vortex has been kind of half the story of why things have been so wet for Victoria. What’s been happening is that our weather systems are generally further south than normal.
“And that is being driven by what’s happening over Antarctica at the moment, where the winds that circulate in the stratosphere are stronger than usual, and those winds are gradually coming down to the ground, drawing everything south.”
Watkins said the “polar vortex” had been having an impact on the weather in the longer term, but said conditions would ease.
“The current outlook seems to show it easing as we go into the new year. As things warm up a bit, we should start to see it easing off, and allow the weather systems to go back to normal.”