After months of heavy bushfires, Australia has finally been hit with major rain, severe thunderstorms and flash floods. The rain so far has already put out over 30 bushfires just in New South Wales alone.
The number of fires decreased from 120 to 88 because of this downpour.
The Bureau of Meteorology is expecting even more rain in the east of North South Wales over the next couple days.
Most people are speculating that the rain over the next few days will finally bring relief to the exhausted volunteers and firefighters.
The meteorology bureau has also reported that, “The hit & miss nature of thunderstorms means it’s difficult to forecast exactly where the heaviest rain will be—some parts of bushfire & drought-affected eastern Australia could see 50–100 mm over the next few days; while others may see very little.”
New South Wales Rural Fire Services (NSW RFS) tweeted the following, “As of 8:30am this morning, 85 bush and grass fires are burning across the state, with 30 to be contained.” They went on to say, “we are starting to see some good falls across some foreground.”
This map above released by Weatherzone shows the full extent of the weather.
Tom Saunders, a Sky News Weather chief meteorologist, said the following, “By Monday, a cut-off low pressure system will bring widespread heavy rain. We could see widespread severe weather with damaging wind gusts, further flash flooding and we could even see supercell storms. So there’s going to be some big rain.”
And obviously, people are ecstatic and sharing the news on Twitter:
NSW Rural Fire Service Inspector Ben Shepherd said: ‘It’s the most positive forecast the RFS has had in months and will give crews a chance to regroup and work on containment lines.’