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Temperatures plummet as rain set to smash 30-year-old records

The cold front that's been battering the country for weeks will cause the mercury to plummet in the southeastern states this weekend while Queensland is in for a deluge of rain.

As the southwesterly airstream moves across Victoria, temperatures will drop dramatically.

“We could start to see some frost over the weekend, particularly in inland Victoria, but even affecting Melbourne,” Weatherzone Meteorologist Jessica Miskelly told Yahoo News Australia.

“Those clear skies and offshore winds will force temperatures into low single figures and definitely over inland areas we are going to start to see zero or below.”

A satellite image of Victoria
Temperatures are expected to plummet across Victoria this weekend. Source: Weatherzone

In Melbourne, the celsius is expected to hover around six degrees as voters make their way to the ballot boxes on Saturday, while Falls Creek in northeastern Victoria, and Launceston in Tasmania, could see a low of 0.4 degrees on Sunday morning.

Torrential rain warning as cold front tracks north

As the cold front moves from southern Australia to the eastern states, Weatherzone says we are going to start to see that rainfall shifting back, yet again, to east Queensland and the NSW coast.

“As that high pressure system moves out of Victoria, the winds around it will drive easterly winds and they will really push showers and rain over the coast,” Ms Miskelly said.

“Combined with some tropical moisture, that is what will be driving the rainfall over the east.”

A flooded road
The cold front is set to bring more rain to Queensland and NSW over the next few days, where the ground is already saturated from a weather system earlier this month. Source: Getty

Rain is set to be the heaviest on the central Queensland coast on Friday, between Mackay and Hervey Bay, with widespread falls over 50mm expected, with up to 100mm in some locations.

While thousands gather at polling booths across Brisbane on Saturday, the rain is likely to start shifting south, hitting the city with around 35mm.

In Sydney, the rainfall is largely going to be coastal.

“There will be showers extending right over the Sydney basin but falls in the east will be heavier,” Ms Miskelly said, forecasting around 10-20 millimetres for the city over the weekend.

Sydney Harbour Bridge in the rain.
Rain is forecast to fall on Sydney across the weekend, with around 10-20 millimetres on Saturday and Sunday. Source: Getty

Queensland in line to beat 30-year-old rain records

The states have already copped a beating this year, with May’s downpour on track to defeat three decades worth of records in Queensland.

“Usually by this time of year, we start to see the influence of the drier westerlies,” Ms Miskelly said, “but this week we are definitely not seeing that.

“This is more of a summer time pattern.”

While Brisbane is so far having its wettest May since 2015, having recorded 224 millimetres to date, falls over the next two days could make it the wettest since 1996 when the city notched up 617 millimetres.

In Mackay, where rain has already reached 128 millimetres in May, the 2017 record of 166 millimetres could be smashed by Sunday.

The last time the town got that wet was in 1990.

The next two days will also see Rockhampton overtake its 2013 May rainfall record of 121 millimetres, to make it the wettest May in 33 years.

1989 was also a La Nina year, a weather pattern characterised by unusually cold temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.

The Bureau of Meteorology has already issued flood warnings, as the rain begins to fall.

A car drives through flood waters
Residents in Queensland are once again on flood alert. Source: AAO

“There are flood warnings already starting to come in for that region because there has been so much rain up there and everything is primed,” Ms Miskelly said.

A minor flood warning was put in place on Friday for central and south eastern parts of the Queensland, with residents urged to be wary of minor flooding.

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