Climate in-brief
Moisture levels and tropical divergence remains high to Australia’s north, albeit with MJO predictions offering little in terms of strength and its next move.
The Southern Annular Mode is weakly-moderately positive and predicted to remain so, - assisting moisture flow through NSW and S Qld areas.
Multi-week models showing some signs of low-air pressure and moisture continuing into the second week of January. Shorter-term guidance is showing only sporadic and smaller totals throughout the forecast area - staying in touch with information when it comes to hand will be critical in the coming days
Temperatures to remain around normal or cooler through until mid-January, consistent with the presence of the MJO to Australia’s north
The chart above shows higher-than-normal air pressure in SE Australia for the last 30-days and lower air pressure to the NW.
Australian weekly rainfall and relative landscape water balance
Some handy falls confined to the Great Dividing Range and western slopes of the ranges in the last 24 -48 hrs. Click on the link for an updated map. http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/flood/?ref=ftr
Weekly rain shows the NSW north coast and ranges being in the sweet spot, along with the norther Territory and Western Australia.
Australian 7-day rainfall map courtesy http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/maps/rainfall/?variable=rainfall&map=totals&period=week®ion=nat&year=2020&month=12&day=17