Australia Weather News

Record rain has fallen in parts of South Australia, bringing relief to some in regional areas after long dry spells — with authorities preparing for more heavy rain in parts of the state on Sunday.

It follows heavy rain in the west of the state, with 75 millimetres at Ceduna, 121mm at Wirrulla and 103mm at Minnipa.

For James Kerr, who runs 100,000-hectare pastoral station Buckleboo on the Eyre Peninsula, the rain could not have come at a better time.

Down to his last dam water on Thursday, Mr Kerr's property received 50mm overnight, half-filling his 35 catchments.

"The timing is impeccable," Mr Kerr said.

"If we didn't get the rain this weekend, we'd have to move the sheep next week out onto the paddock where we had the bore and that would have been the last water we had on the property.

"This year we were staring down the barrel of another year with no grass rain.

"For our summer active grasses, this is the first drink they've had in three summers."

Stacey Horgan, who lives at Poochera, about 140km east of Ceduna, said she had received 150mm from Friday night through to yesterday.

She said she had not seen anything like it in 15 years at Poochera.

"We've got a swimming pool we've had to empty three times because it's overflowing," Ms Horgan said.

"Yeah, it's been incredible to see this much rain."

Other parts of the state have also recorded downpours, including 142mm at Yunta, in South Australia's outback.

In the Riverland, 43mm of rainfall was recorded at Loxton in three hours on Sunday morning.

In nearby Renmark, the Metropolitan Fire Service were called to assist with a roof collapse at a shop.

Check weather conditions, SES urges

Ursula Connor from The Bureau of Meteorology said the low-pressure system was moving "quite quickly" through the pastoral districts.

"It does look like the heaviest falls will be on and east of the Mount Lofty Ranges, so those more significant thunderstorms and showers possibly missing Adelaide. But we're still expecting fairly persistent rain and shower activity through the area — pretty much what we've been seeing over the last day or so," she told ABC Radio's Jason Chong on Sunday morning.

Ms Connor said the heaviest falls would be pushed out towards the eastern border ranges late on Sunday evening and persist into Monday morning, with isolated showers lingering on Tuesday before conditions settled across the state.

"By the time we get to mid-week ... [it's] looking quite dry across most of the state for the rest of the week," she said.

On Saturday, SA SES chief of staff Derren Halleday said the emergency service had planned for "worst-case scenarios" due to unpredictability about where most rain would fall.

A severe weather warning had been in place for the Adelaide metropolitan area early on Sunday morning, however it was later cancelled for that district.

Mr Halleday said Adelaide residents should check the latest on the Bureau of Meteorology website before leaving home.

The SES urged people not to drive, ride or walk through floodwaters and to keep clear of creeks and storm drains.

Mr Halleday said the SES had distributed more than 83,000 sandbags by Saturday afternoon and responded to about 140 requests since Friday.