It's not often you provide a weather forecast for a major event without being sure where (or potentially even when) that event will actually take place, but these are the strange times we live in.

But with Queensland's Covid outbreak – and the possibility that Sunday's NRL Grand Final between the Penrith Panthers and South Sydney Rabbitohs could be shifted from Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium to Townsville's Queensland Country Bank Stadium, and perhaps even postponed – we're providing the latest forecast for both cities for this coming Sunday and the one after it.

Image: You can download the WZ app and access our exclusive 28 day forecasts for any Australian location.

Let's start with this Sunday, October 3:

The good news is that the weather looks pretty good in both Brisbane and Townsville. In fact the forecasts are pretty close to identical, which is not a bad trick for two cities more than 1300 km apart.

• Brisbane should be fine and sunny with a top temp of 30°C. Click here for the detailed forecast.
• Townsville should also be mostly fine with a top of 31°C. Click here for the detailed forecast.

Temperatures should cool down a little by kickoff in both cities, which takes place at 6:30 pm local time (7:30 pm AEDT). Humidity looks to be minimal in Brisbane and in the moderate range in Townsville, but it likely won't be sticky enough in either city to prevent a dry track ideal for attacking rugby league.

What about Sunday, October 10?

Forecasts for specific locations are always more difficult to lock in with certainty once you get beyond a period of a few days. But as you can see from the graphic higher up in this story:

• It looks as though Sunday October 10 could fall in a rainy spell for Brisbane.
• Townville might just stay dry on game day, although rain appears to be coming soon afterwards.

Again, while our 28-day forecasts are an indication of the likely weather, we stress that nine days out is very early to be making definitive calls.

But we stand firmly by our prediction of fine weather this Sunday in both cities, so here's hoping the date of the 2021 NRL Grand Final is not shifted.

Oh, and we tip the Rabbitohs in an upset. We successfully picked the Demons in the AFL last week, but it's boring tipping favourites all the time, and we can smell a bit of a boilover! As ever, don't hold us to that. We predict the weather, not the footy!