Hello it's Angus again at the Bureau of Meteorology with a National Weather Forecast focusing in on Thursday the 22nd of January. And broad parts of Australia will have a fine day throughout the day on Thursday. It will be a little cool in the south-east due to some chilly air coming in behind this cold front, which will also graze the New South Wales coast with some chillier winds and some showers. Outside of that, rainfall really confined to inland parts of Queensland and our tropical northern latitudes.

Going state by state for Queensland, we've got a risk of storms through most western districts, really going from Roma and Charleville all the way up to Mount Isa. Those thunderstorms, especially during the afternoon, could bring a risk of damaging wind gusts and some reasonable rainfall totals to fairly localised pockets where they do form. Across the east coast bright and mostly sunny weather is expected, with a bit of passing cloud throughout the day, and temperatures are a little warmer than they have been, particularly around south-east Queensland, where Brisbane is headed for a high of 34 °C, and surrounding areas also in the low to mid thirties.

We expect a little surge in wind to move up the east coast of New South Wales during Thursday. That's likely to cross the Illawarra in the morning, get to Sydney about midday and then up through the Hunter and Newcastle in the afternoon. So when that wind change arrives, expect the temperatures to cool off by a few degrees. Sydney could drop from 26 °C to about 21 °C or 22 °C, and maybe a little line of showers crossing this east coast as well. No heavy rain in the forecast, but a millimetre or two as the wind change pushes through is possible.

After that, it will become fine again across the east coast once that wind change clears up, and it will be a fine and settled day through almost all of western New South Wales. Temperatures are warm, the wind is down and the sun is out.

A morning shower or two possible for central and eastern Victoria on Thursday morning, really from Melbourne through these Gippsland regions. Should all be gone before midday. And then we see statewide sunshine through the second half of Thursday. Temperatures, though, are going to stay on the cool side, particularly for southern Victoria. We see temperatures between 18 °C and 21 °C throughout the southern districts tomorrow. That is several degrees below average. A little warmer in the north, often in the top half of the twenties, but we're still struggling to see much 30 °C action in Victoria for Thursday.

We will also anticipate chilly conditions through Tasmania in the wake of the cold front, which is really crossing the state on Wednesday, but by Thursday morning it will be some cold air. Now there will also be some showers overnight into Thursday morning, some showery weather. Any wet conditions should clear up in the morning and most of the day will then become fine and dry. The wind will die out, but a little bit of cloud will linger overhead.

Sunshine expected throughout South Australia on Thursday. A little morning cloud across the south coast, but that should all burn away and then it will be sunshine throughout the state. Temperatures are a little mild, but perhaps you should get out and enjoy those milder temperatures because they are on the rise in the coming days. And in particular, Saturday is looking like a very hot day across the state.

Out to the west now, dry weather here and for most places, still quite hot, but not as hot as what it has been recently. Perth, for example, dropping from about 40 °C on Wednesday down to around 33 °C for Thursday. We'll also see some gusty winds move in from the ocean. Other spots though, Geraldton, Northam, Kalgoorlie-Boulder still closer to 40 °C than 30 °C for tomorrow, and of course still hot up around the Pilbara and Gascoyne.

And finally to Australia's north. Now, we saw some pretty heavy rain around Darwin last night with some storms, and Thursday will be another day where we are likely to see some showers and storms across the Top End, across the Kimberley, but they will bring hit and miss rainfall totals. Some people will get up to that 50 mm, 80 mm, 100 mm mark. Many people will miss out and get a lot less rainfall than that, if any at all.

We are still watching this weather system here, this low, that’s 16U the tropical low which is developing at the moment. It's moving towards the top of the country, but not likely to arrive until Friday or Saturday. Expecting that to bring increased rain and wind to parts of the Kimberley heading into the long weekend.

And that's a nice place to finish. If you would like any more info for the long weekend, find your local spot on the Bureau website or the BOM Weather app. Thanks very much for joining me.