Australia Weather News

Rainclouds gather off the shore of the NSW far coast on Sunday night, before dumping up to 50mm in the region on Monday. - ABC

Farmers on the New South Wales South Coast, and in parts of the Snowy Mountains, Southern Tablelands and around Canberra, look set to receive much-needed rain, thanks to a low pressure system.

East coast lows commonly bring high rainfall, damaging winds and dangerous surf conditions, but the Bureau of Meteorology thinks there is only a 20 per cent chance of that system developing now.

But the low pressure system was set to move north later today, bringing rain to the Illawarra, Sydney and lower Hunter regions by tomorrow.

"It's going to be fairly persistent rainfall, particularly closer to the coast," said the Bureau of Meteorology's Gabrielle Woodhouse said.

"Further away from the coast, out towards Richmond, it'll be more a couple of showers and patchy rain."

At this stage, Ms Woodhouse said, flash flooding was unlikely in coastal parts of Sydney, where between 30 and 40mm of rain could be expected.

"Because it is looking like fairly steady rain, flash flooding is unlikely, although we might see some minor flooding over roads at times, especially in Tuesday and Wednesday around eastern Sydney," she said.

In the Bega valley, Phil Dummett had received 50mm by Monday morning.

Mr Dummett was buying in water, so the forecast for continued rainfall was welcome.

"It's setting us up for a terrific spring, if we can get some sunny days, and some more storms," he said.

'Dangerous surf conditions' expected

Strong winds will hit coastal areas, with windspeeds of 50 to 60 kilometres an hour, which could lead to fallen trees and property damage, Ms Woodhouse said.

"As you can expect with those sorts of winds, the seas will start to pick up on Tuesday, so we're looking at those waves picking up and some rather dangerous surf conditions for the rest of the week."

Gippsland farmers Russell and Chris Haywood received 48mm of rain by Monday morning, the most they've seen since December 2017.

"It was fairly consistent rainfall," Russell Haywood said.

BOM forecaster Don Whitford said the weather system would cross the coast in Gippsland by the end of the day.

"North of Merimbula to Bega is where they've had the most rain, but we're not going to see as much in Gippsland," he said.

"The far east Gippsland areas may see around 50mm around Combienbar and Mallacoota."

ABC