Huge Rain Bomb Set To Hit Drought-Ravaged Australia Gives Hope To Exhausted Firefighters

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Australia hasn’t had an easy start to the year, as infernos rage across the country. However, there’s light on the horizon: rain is forecast. 

Since September, the bushfires Down Under have taken the lives of at least 27 people, as well as wiping out more than 2,000 homes. It’s also been estimated that more than a billion animals have died as a result of the fires.

As firefighters and volunteers offer their assistance tirelessly, well-deserved respite could be on its way: a rain bomb is set to fall on several Australian states over the next few days.

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Known to meteorologists as wet microbursts, rain bombs are large amounts of perspiration are brewed in thunderstorms. As per the New South Wales Bureau of Meteorology, up to 100mm of rain is expected to fall across parts of the state over the course of the coming week.

This image of a storm over Farmland and Yarra Yarra Lake, Carnamah Western Australia, in 2011 represents what residents could expect from a ‘rain bomb’:

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NSW Rural Fire Service wrote in a tweet: ‘If this rainfall forecast comes to fruition then this will be all of our Christmas, birthday, engagement, anniversary, wedding and graduation presents rolled into one. Fingers crossed.’

Today, January 13, showers are set to grace Sydney, along with Lismore, Coffs Harbour and Wollongong. Thunderstorms are also expected in Melbourne, Mildura, Bendigo, Seymour, Mt Hotham, Wangaratta, Ballarat and Latrobe Valley.

Hannah Wilson, a Weatherzone meteorologist, told 9News: 

Places like Dubbo, Canberra and St George in Queensland could see more than 15mm of rain. That trough could hang around for the remainder of the week and we could get isolated rainfall in communities across Victoria, NSW and Queensland however at this stage it’s hard to tell exactly where the rain will fall.

Even if we got 5-10mm evert night for a few nights, Sydney’s average rainfall for this period is 102mm and so far we’ve had just over 6mm so we still have a long way to go. Looking at summer as a whole we have even further. We’d need a strong deluge every night for consecutive days.

While Cyclone Claudia is set to shower Western Australia with more than 500mm of rain, South Australia isn’t as fortunate. Temperatures are set to soar to anywhere between 35C and 48C, with blustery conditions accentuating the fire risks, as the state struggles to contain the ongoing blazes.

Over the past four months, it’s estimated that 10 million hectares (100,000 sq km) of land across the entirety of Australia has turned to ash in the bushfires, as per the BBC.

You can donate to the Australian Red Cross here. Alternatively, you can donate to the NSW Rural Fire Service here, or the Queensland Fire Service here. You can also donate to the WWF Australia Bushfire Emergency fund here.

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Cameron Frew

After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.