Regional Victoria, NSW brace for soaking as heavy rain forecast
Regional communities are bracing for a heavy rain event threatening to wash out the weekend in parts of Victoria and southern New South Wales.
The regions in the firing line set for a soaking include western and northern Victoria, with rain expected to thrash the regions, before moving through eastern parts of Victoria and possibly the South Coast of NSW.
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) meteorologist Dean Narramore said a low was developing over Western Australia today and tomorrow, which would move through South Australia on Friday and then drench south-eastern parts of the country at the weekend.
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"At this stage, the heaviest falls look to be through northern Victoria, western Victoria as well, and possibly I believe southern NSW," he said.
"The other unfortunate news is - it looks like some of that rain is going to spill over the Lachlan River.
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"It means those flood-weary communities could be seeing more rain, particularly Saturday night into Sunday."
Floodwaters have turned the central western township of Gooloogong into a river. Photographs by Dean Sewell. Dean Sewell
The intense rainfall has sparked fresh flood warnings for the NSW central-west town of Forbes.
Mr Narramore said the town could see anywhere between 15mm to 25mm of rain.
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The worst of the rain is expected to hit further south of the town, particularly along the Murray River, where larger amounts of rainfall between 30mm and 50mm are forecast.
"Looks like the heaviest falls will miss Melbourne," Mr Narramore said.
The central western township of Gooloogong was cut off and isolated from floodwaters after the Lachlan River peaked there at 12.50m earlier this morning. Other townships are also cut off as large volumes of water are released from the Wyangala Dam near Cowra. The Lachlan River at Forbes is expected to peak tomorrow or Thursday at a predicted 12.65m. Photographs taken Tuesday 16th November 2021. photographs by Dean Sewell. Dean Sewell
"It is through northern and eastern parts of Victoria and possibly the South Coast of NSW - areas that are already saturated.
"We have numerous warnings out for those locations. We could see renewed rises on many rivers again as we move across into the weekend and early next week."
NSW SES has directed people within low-lying areas of Forbes to evacuate out of the high danger area as floodwaters will progressively close roads.
Mr Narramore said wintery weather conditions across parts of the country are set to continue into the early part of summer.
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