All eight states and territories in Australia are experiencing lightning strikes from storms on Saturday night, marking an incredibly unique weather phenomena.
While storms and lightning are not unheard of in the northern portions of the country as the wet season approaches, it is extremely uncommon for storms and lightning to occur simultaneously in at least a portion of every state and territory.
However, the Weatherzone radar image below, which was captured at 7 p.m. AEDT, depicts the conditions of that Saturday night, with the small silver cross symbols denoting lightning strikes connected to thunderstorms.
As you can see, lightning strikes were happening simultaneously all over Australia: from the tropical regions of Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia to the normally arid regions of northern South Australia, central and eastern New South Wales, southern Victoria, and northern Tasmania.
This week’s extensive rainy weather across much of the nation was caused by “a broad low-pressure trough, supported by successive slow-moving cut-off lows and troughs in the upper levels,” according to Weatherzone.
The SA town of Naracoorte received its heaviest day of November rainfall in 25 years, as you can see in the spectacular imagery in the story’s top video. In practical terms, the wet atmosphere has contributed to some very heavy falls.
The rain this week has been much appreciated by farmers, particularly in advance of the dry and warmer-than-usual summer that the BoM has projected will likely occur in many regions of Australia.
“We haven’t had much rain for many months here in the Central Highlands,” farmer Renée from central Queensland said.
As of right now, three days’ worth of rainfall totals 157.2 mm. Good news has spread throughout our valley.”
In many regions of the nation, stormy weather is predicted to start to clear out on Sunday and continue into the next week.
Meanwhile, the week-long heatwave and high fire danger are still present in southern Washington.
Perth is predicted to reach a maximum temperature of 39°C on Sunday before circumstances begin to improve on Monday with gentler temperatures.
