Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne weather: Seven days of rain about to strike

Australia's east coast is set to see widespread rain everyday for the next week as we head into summer, despite forecast hot and dry conditions courtesy of the El Niño weather system. 

'There's a pretty decent rain event over the next week with Sydney looking at between 50mm to 100mm over the next seven days,' Weatherzone meteorologist Angus Konta told Daily Mail Australia.

'Brisbane will also see rain, especially early next week, reaching 30mm to 60mm over seven days and Melbourne is also in for consistent wet weather but with lighter rainfall of around 20mm to 40mm for the week'. 

Mr Konta explained a trough over the eastern states is meeting warm tropical air moving inland from the ocean, which will produce rain and thunderstorms.

'The wet will mostly be in the eastern half of the country with a heatwave underway in Perth on the west coast that is expected to last into the weekend.' 

The wet period follows another run of damp days over much of the east coast as the country heads into a supposedly hot and dry El Niño summer.

El Niño is characterised by reduced rainfall and warmer temperatures, which is in stark contrast to the three years of the inverse La Niña weather pattern that caused flooding along the east coast in 2020 and 2021.

'The shift in rainfall away from the western Pacific, associated with El Niño, means that Australian rainfall is usually reduced through winter–spring, particularly across the eastern and northern parts of the continent,' according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

'Nine of the ten driest winter–spring periods on record for eastern Australia occurred during El Niño years.'

El Niño years also tend to see warmer-than-average temperatures across most of southern Australia, particularly during the second half of the year.'

However, according to Weatherzone a low pressure system hanging over South Australia is pulling in evaporated moisture that is sitting above warm water off Australia's eastern and northern coasts.

'The low will draw moisture in via northerly winds over the eastern part of the country," it said.

'Easterly winds in the northern part of the country then allow the trough to tap into the moisture from the tropics and the very warm water off the northwest shelf of Western Australia.'

The weather service said Tuesday looks to be the wettest day for Queensland and northern NSW with the heavier rain moving further south over Sydney by next Wednesday. 

The wet weather in Queensland at least has helped firefighters after they battled more than a thousand blazes earlier this month, prompting calls for reinforcements from Victoria and New Zealand.

The federal and Queensland governments have added to the wet weather relief by announcing concessions for farmers and councils impacted by bushfires in the state's south.

Farmers in nine local government areas can apply for concessional interest rate loans and freight subsidies through the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

Help is also available for 13 Queensland councils for counter-disaster initiatives such as firefighting and recovery operations.

'Both levels of government have worked together to activate a range of emergency payments for impacted residents, and I'm pleased to see around $400,000 already landing in Queensland pockets,' Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said.

'The support for local councils also ensures the reimbursement of extraordinary costs associated with cleaning up and repairing essential public assets.'

The state government said almost 400 large square bales of feed for livestock had already been delivered to fire-hit regions with another road train set to arrive on the Southern Downs on Tuesday.

The Agriculture and Fisheries Department are providing advice to farmers on their recovery options.

Farmers can also access disaster assistance loans up to $250,000 and freight assistance of up to $5000.