Australia’s east coast has been struck by its first blackouts as a heatwave grips the country and the weather bureau warns storms are set to smash ‘every state and territory‘.
A total of 347 sites suffered blackouts during an unplanned outage in Sydney’s CBD at 3pm on Tuesday, according to an update from Ausgrid. Power is expected to be restored by 5.30pm.
NSW Premier Chris Minns on Monday acknowledged the electricity grid would be under pressure.
‘We will be as quick as possible with updates to the community about potential interruptions with supply,’ Mr Minns said.
Authorities have also issued blackout warnings for Queensland this week, with the highest-risk of blackout times between 3.30pm and 7.30pm.
It comes as a heatwave warning remains in place for areas of NSW on Tuesday, including a severe warning for the Mid North Coast, Hunter, Metropolitan, Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Tablelands Districts.
On Tuesday, Sydney‘s CBD was tipped to hit 31C, Adelaide to swelter with 33C heat, while Perth is expected to reach 35C on Friday.
NSW residents in Batemans Bay, Bowral, Camden, Liverpool, Penrith, Campbelltown, Hornsby, Nowra, Parramatta and Richmond will sweat on Wednesday when temperatures are tipped to reach 40C on Wednesday.
These unusually hot days are 6C to 10C higher than the typical seasonal average.
The mercury could potentially exceed more than 40C for parts of Sydney as the heatwave continues along the NSW coast this week.
Forecasters are also expecting heavy rain and the chance of severe thunderstorms for all states and territories for the rest of the week.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jonathan How said warm ocean waters around Australia were driving the unsettled conditions, with sea temperatures reaching 32C off Western Australia’s north coast.
‘As sea surface temperatures rise, the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, or moisture increases and this is fuel for thunderstorms,’ Mr How said.
‘By Wednesday, we could see accumulated rainfalls exceed 50mm across parts of Victoria and the Northern Territory.
‘From Thursday and Friday, that’s when we start to see rainfall totals building in NSW and southern Queensland.’
Sydney
Tuesday: Sunny. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 30km/h. Max 31C.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny. Slight chance of a shower. Winds up to 25km/h. Min 21C Max 33C.
Thursday: Showers, up to 10mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 22C Max 30C.
Friday: Showers, up to 20mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 20C Max 25C.
Melbourne
Tuesday: Medium chance of shower, up to 5mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Max 25C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 9mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 21C Max 28C.
Thursday: Slight chance of showers. Winds up to 25km/h. Min 16C Max 24C.
Friday: Medium chance of showers. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 25km/h. Min 16C Max 26C.
Brisbane
Tuesday: Slight chance of a shower. Winds up to 20km/h. Max 29C.
Wednesday: Medium chance of showers. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 21C Max 29C.
Thursday: Medium chance of showers. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 23C Max 30C.
Friday: Medium chance of showers. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 23C Max 29C.
Canberra
Tuesday: Medium chance of showers. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 30km/h. Max 31C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 10mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 30km/h. Min 17C Max 28C.
Thursday: Medium chance of showers. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 15C Max 29C.
Friday: Showers, up to 20mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 14C Max 27C.
Hobart
Tuesday: Slight chance of a shower. Winds up to 20km/h. Max 24C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 20mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 25km/h. Min 15C Max 24C.
Thursday: Showers. up to 15mm of rain. Winds up to 30km/h. Min 12C Max 17C.
Friday: Slight chance of a shower. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 11C Max 18C.
Adelaide
Tuesday: Showers. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 25km/h. Max 33C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 5mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 30km/h. Min 15C Max 23C.
Thursday: Slight chance of a shower. Winds up to 25km/h. Min 13C Max 22C.
Friday: Slight chance of a shower. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 13C Max 25C.
Perth
Tuesday: Sunny. Winds up to 40km/h. Max 25C.
Wednesday: Sunny. Winds up to 30km/h. Min 13C Max 28C.
Thursday: Sunny. Winds up to 30km/h. Min 16C Max 32C.
Friday: Slight chance of a shower. Chance of a thunderstorm. Winds up to 30km Min 21C Max 35C.
Darwin
Tuesday: Showers. Chance of a thunderstorm. Max 32C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 10mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Min 25C Max 32C.
Thursday: Showers, up to 10mm of rain. Winds up to 20km/h. Min 26C Max 33C.
Friday: Showers, up to 15mm of rain. Chance of a thunderstorm. Min 26C Max 33C.
