Widespread thunderstorm activity will spread across Australia between Thursday and Sunday, before another round of storms impacts multiple states next week. This prolonged period of storms will include severe thunderstorms in several states.
Volatile weather pattern
Troughs of low pressure interacting with tropical moisture and copious atmospheric instability will cause a prolonged period of stormy weather across Australia during the next 7 to 10 days. This type of weather is not unusual in Australia during spring, when warming temperatures, moisture and atmospheric instability combine to create favourable conditions for thunderstorm development.
Thursday–Friday: WA to central Australia and SA
The first phase of this stormy period will commence in Western Australia as a cold front and associated low pressure trough cross the state on Thursday.
As this system moves further east on Friday, it will tap into additional tropical moisture and cause rain and thunderstorms to spread across central and southern Australia. Friday’s storms are likely to produce a high volume of lightning and have a good chance of causing severe thunderstorms in parts of SA and central Australia.
Friday–Saturday: Eastern states
As the trough continues to move further east, a broad arc of rain and storms will progress across eastern Australia on Friday night and Saturday, impacting parts of Queensland, NSW and the ACT. Some of these thunderstorms are likely to become severe. A burst of rain will also spread across Victoria and Tasmania late Friday and on Saturday, with a few storms also possible in these states.
Sunday–Wednesday: Second trough bringing more storms
Thunderstorms associated with the initial trough will mainly contract to Qld and northern NSW on Sunday. However, another trough is expected to cause storms to redevelop across central and southern Australia from Sunday.
Forecast models suggest that this second trough could cause a broad area of rain and thunderstorms to extend across central and southeastern Australia on Monday and Tuesday, before shifting to eastern Australia on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the seven days ending at 11pm AEST on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Source: Weatherzone.
The thunderstorms over the coming week are likely to produce more than 1 million lightning strikes over Australia. Some of the storms will also become severe, meaning they may produce damaging winds, large hail or heavy rain leading to flash flooding. The atmospheric setup may also support isolated supercell thunderstorm development in some parts of the country.