It's another busy morning at The Weather Channel! The heaviest rain in years is drenching Sydneysiders with as much as 50mm falling in just an hour over the eastern suburbs. The downpour started at around lunch-time yesterday and to 9am this morning Canterbury was soaked by 96mm, it's heaviest day of rain in at least 5 years. Meanwhile, Sydney city recorded a month's worth of rain in 24 hours with 73mm. The highest rain total for the Sydney area was in French's Forest with a huge 114mm!
But it's not just Sydney getting soaked, areas north of the city have also picked up heavy falls. Parts of the Mid North Coast have seen as much as 77mm in Forster.
The cause of all this rain is moist air from the Tasman and Coral Seas clashing with a pool of cold air from the Southern Ocean. Since the moist oceanic air is a lot warmer than the cold pool, it rises above it. As the warm air rises, it cools because temperature decreases with altitude. As the air cools, it eventually condenses and falls back down as rain.
Sydneysiders will be making the commute to work this morning under grey skies and slippery conditons but the rain will ease this afternoon. Torrential falls will continue on the New South Wales north coast with another 100mm possible by Wednesday. The soaking rains are also gradually seeping into southern Queensland which may see 50mm over the next 48 hours. This comes as good news for Queenslanders who have barely seen a drop in the last 3 months.
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