Severe Storm Front Brings Warnings to Several Australian Cities
Storm warnings were in place on Saturday 31 October 2026 for several capital cities across Australia's east and south-east as a severe weather front moved across the country, The Guardian reported.
On Saturday afternoon, heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms were forecast for Melbourne and eastern Victoria, as a cold front pushed into warm, humid air. The front was expected to move east, reaching Canberra and inland New South Wales before arriving on the east coast on Sunday and stretching as far as southern Queensland.
The Bureau of Meteorology, Australia's national weather agency, warned of possible flash flooding, which is sudden flooding caused by heavy rain falling quickly. It also warned of destructive winds of more than 125 kilometres per hour, which could bring down large trees or damage property.
On Saturday, storms were expected to affect Melbourne, parts of Gippsland, the north-eastern ranges and north-central Victoria, with damaging winds identified as the main risk. A severe wind warning covered the mountains of northern Victoria and southern New South Wales, where gusts of more than 100 kilometres per hour were recorded on Saturday morning.
For Sunday, the most likely areas for severe thunderstorms were parts of the New South Wales mid-north coast, the northern rivers, parts of the tablelands and the Hunter region. Forecasts for those areas included possible large hailstones, heavy rainfall, flash flooding and destructive winds. A broader area of concern stretched from Newcastle, north of Sydney, up to Gympie on the Sunshine Coast. The risk zone also took in the coast south of Sydney, around Wollongong and the Illawarra.
Heavy rain and storms were forecast around Brisbane on Sunday afternoon and early evening. A Severe Thunderstorm Warning for south-east Queensland, covering giant hailstones, destructive winds and heavy rainfall in parts of Somerset, Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, appeared on the Bureau's warnings page.
In a severe weather update posted on 31 October 2026, the Bureau described a weekend storm outbreak affecting southern and eastern Australia, with the most intense storms expected in areas marked red on its map, including around Canberra. Bureau of Meteorology
