Welcome to Australia .....

Before - here comes the tide -

It's normal for Australia - the land of crazy weather - we are used to extremes.  Last week it was 47 (117f) in my suburb in Western Sydney now it is 21 (69f), overcast and rainy.

Part of the country is on fire and the rest is under water.

BUT .... the worst is yet to come.

Queensland's coast has been battered.  From Bundaberg down they have been hit by ex cyclone Oswald and torrential rain and heavy winds plus an abnormally high tide.

If that wasn't enough 6 tornadoes touched down.

My elder son and his family live in Toogoom, their house is on the beach.  They are about 20kms away from Burnett Heads where some of the tornadoes hit and they got the strong winds associated with them.  Warning sirens seemed to be going off non-stop over a 36 hr period.

After - the yard

Fortunately they are okay - lots of trees down, most homes on the beach have lost about 14 mtrs but they are all safe.  They have fared much better than people in Bundaberg who are still cut off and have record breaking floodwaters through the town as well as damage from the tornadoes.

Thank goodness they are moving next week - they are now the caretakers of Hervey Bay Animal refuge and will live onsite.

So now their big clean up begins but for me it hasn't started.

The storm is heading down Australia's east coast and is bringing heavy rain, and destructive winds.  At the moment it is very still here.  A sprinkle of rain every now and again but the BOM has warned of what is heading our way.

Their backyard

Toogoom beach front

                

Pialba burrum heads road

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said Oswald is moving slowly into northern NSW and will surge rapidly south later today.  A severe weather warning has been issued for much of the state including Sydney with people being warned of flash flooding and wind gusts of up to 140km/h

Dorrigo

Bundaberg

UPDATE ..... Lucky for Sydney the weather system had lost a lot of its punch.

In my area we had around 110mm of rain in 24 hrs (that's just over 4") and only a little puff or two of wind.

Basically all we have to do is dry out now.