Hello, this is Angus checking in from the Bureau of Meteorology. And this is actually a Severe Weather Update, because between today, which is Monday, the 22nd of December, and Christmas Day on the 25th, severe thunderstorms are going to play a significant role in the weather across northern and eastern Australia. We've already seen severe storms through the course of the weekend, and that is only going to continue for the next few days, and I wanted to start off by showing you some satellite imagery.

This is very special satellite imagery. This is water vapour imagery. The bright colours here, starting with purple but also including green and white, show us where there is significant moisture in the atmosphere. It is a humid environment in these areas, where the dim colours like the orange and the grey show us where it is dry. Thunderstorms thrive in a moist environment, and it is this band of moisture here that stretches from the Territory across to northern New South Wales, where we expect to see significant storm development through the course of the day today.

So we're jumping straight into the thunderstorm outlook map for Monday. And as always, I want to highlight the yellow and the red areas because that is where severe thunderstorms could occur. And severe thunderstorms bring a risk of a variety of weather hazards. And for today, these are the main weather hazards that we are forecasting.

So across the Territory, including this red area here where those thunderstorms are most likely, it is a risk of heavy rainfall and associated flooding that comes in with that rain. For western Queensland, the same idea. Heavy rain is the main risk with any storms that develop in that area there. Closer to the Queensland–New South Wales border though, alongside a rainfall risk, we also see a risk of damaging wind gusts potentially above 90 km an hour, which could bring down some branches or trees and maybe damage some property.

Down on the New South Wales coast for the Hunter region around Newcastle, as well as the Mid North Coast region around Port Macquarie, not only do we see the risk of heavy rainfall and damaging wind, but we could also see some large hailstones in this area above 2 cm across. So some sizeable hail, damaging wind, heavy rain, all possible as thunderstorms get going.

In terms of timing, it looks like mid-afternoon on Monday is when these storms will really start to ramp up, and from there they could continue past sunset into the evening and into the night tonight.

And we're not done there. Let's look at tomorrow's map. It's going to look actually very, very similar to today's one. We're now looking at Tuesday's thunderstorm risk across the country. And broadly speaking, the pattern is the same, stretching from the north to the east. But we have seen an increase in the potential for thunderstorms tomorrow around this area here, south-east Queensland through Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, up into the Darling Downs as well.

We now see an elevated risk of severe thunderstorm potential there for Tuesday, with heavy rainfall likely to be the main threat with storms that do get going there. That's Tuesday the 23rd.

This is now Christmas Eve, Wednesday the 24th of December, and once again the map looks fairly similar. Severe thunderstorms remain possible across much of the Territory, around the Gulf of Carpentaria, through western Queensland, down towards south-eastern Queensland, including the Wide Bay Burnett region, including parts of Capricornia, including the south-east coast, and including the Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast of New South Wales.

So between now and Christmas, multiple days each with the potential, the threat, of severe thunderstorms across northern and eastern areas. They could bring some pretty punchy weather impacts with them as well. For most areas, that is the rainfall, which is the main risk. That's flash flooding. It's the potential maybe that we could see some river level rises if enough storms all form over the same river catchment area.

We could see closed roads and potentially community isolation, depending on how much rain falls and how many days in a row that rain falls down. And with the hail, the damaging wind and the strong rainfall coming in, we could also see damage to crops, gardens, plants and basically anything which spends its life outdoors.

So a significant run of weather in the lead-up to Christmas Day. If you would like to see your forecast through the next several days or check in on your risk for the 25th, you can find the latest information on the Bureau’s website or the BOM Weather app.