In the last week of April 2024 coastal New South Wales was warned about a high pressure system building over southern Australia which could cause a "blocking high", the name given to a high-pressure system that stalls from several days to several weeks, and blocks the typical eastward movement of weather.
This could lead to 10 days of rain falling on coastal NSW.
ABC News reporting: The showers initially will not generate heavy falls or severe weather, however when combined with a developing trough later this week, an area of rain will form across western NSW on Thursday and Friday, shifting to the coast during the weekend.
Modelling indicates the event could bring anything from 50 to 200 millimetres to the NSW coastline, and possibly over 50mm across pockets of the west, potentially enough to trigger flood watches and warnings.
Although rainfall since 30 April has not yet resulted in flooding (with the exception of of continuing minor flooding in a section of the Warrego River in north-west of the state), the initial Bureau of Meteorology modelling forecasting this expected rainfall spread by Sunday 5 May 2024 is:
So far this year the NSW Government has declared two natural disaster periods.
The first for Clarence Valley NSW Bushfires, 21 January – 13 February 2024 and the second NSW East Coast Flooding from 1 April 2024 which covered 33 local government areas - including the Clarence Valley, Lismore City and Byron Shire.
Fingers crossed that situation does not escalate beyond current meteorological predictions.
