As 2023 comes to a close, it seems Mother Nature is determined to ensure the year's wild weather will last right up to New Year's Eve, with thunderstorms, hail, lightning and a heatwave predicted, depending where in the state you are.
As the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather forecast for parts of eastern Australia for the final weekend of 2023, farmers are hoping more rain could fill up their dried out dams.
While conditions have now generally eased across eastern Australia, with thunderstorms becoming more isolated in the next few days, BOM meteorologists have forecast that severe thunderstorms to return this weekend, continuing into the new year.
Kylie Graham, Farnham, Taroom, runs a 4856 hectare (12,000 acre) property with Droughtmaster cattle and performances horses, said any wet stuff falling from the sky would be welcomed.
"The rain which fell on Christmas night was great, we had 74mm, this was our biggest fall we had this year," she said.
"We'd definitely love to see some more rain to follow and top of what we had.
"We need more to keep coming."
While Ms Graham said her property had bores, she said the area really needed a good soak.
"I'm one of the lucky ones," she said.
"Our rainfall this year was well below average, about half what we usually get.
"I think the last good rain we had was 40mm in March, it's been a dry year."
BOM senior meteorologist Sarah Scully said isolated thunderstorms were possible for parts of Queensland.
"Severe thunderstorms are possible in Queensland between St Lawrence and Redcliffe," she said.
"Although activity will not be as widespread compared to previous days."
Ms Scully said the rain will be mixed with extreme temperatures in Queensland, heatwave conditions are forecast for parts of northern Queensland, while in the west both Longreach and Julia Creek are forecast to reach 47 degrees this weekend.
BOM community information officer Daniel Hayes said areas that were not going to be drenched were going to be hot.
Mr Hayes said while the lower half of the state is forecast to experience severe storms, inland, out west and in the far north the mercury is expected to climb.
"There will be places reaching 40 degrees plus inland with Birdsville expected to reach 47 degrees today which will be the hottest; although it will drop back to 40 degrees there tomorrow (Saturday December 30, 2023)," he said.
"Saturday and Sunday will continue to be hot inland."
Mr Hayes said the wild weather will be generally contained to the state's south east.
"On Saturday it will pretty much be in the south east to the Darling Downs and Wide Bay, while there a focus on the coastal areas with the strongest storm activity," he said.
"As we head into New Year's Eve the chance persists across the lower half of the state with thunderstorms being most severe on Sunday to the north of Brisbane to Wide Bay, Capricornia, Central Highlands and Coalfields".
The state's west will be largely dry with only the usual rain expected this time of the year, Mr Hayes said.
"Out west as we head into Sunday it will be largely dry with clear skies west of Charleville, Longreach and Mount Isa," he said.
"But over east there's a chance of thunderstorms may even reach Sarina and Mackay.
"It will be hot and humid at the Cape and on the Gulf with seasonal showers and thunderstorm activity."
Meanwhile, heatwave conditions are impacting much of northern Australia, with temperatures climbing into the mid-to-high 40s in some areas.
BOM's 2024 Outlook
Meanwhile, BOM said it was expecting a drier than median January to March outlook for northern and western Australia.
On December 28, 2023, BOM said for January, rainfall is likely to very likely (60 per cent) to greater than 80 pc chance) to be below median for most of northern Australia and western WA. Above median rainfall is likely (60pc to 80pc chance) for regions extending from south-east Queensland into northern NSW.
For January to March, below median rainfall is likely to very likely (60pc to greater than 80pc chance) for most of the tropics, and the south-west Queensland.
Past accuracy of January to March long-range forecasts for the chance of above median rainfall is moderate to high for most of Australia, decreasing to low to very low for small areas in the central NT, extending into northern WA, as well as western SA and a small part of the NSW east coast.
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