After all the rain eastern Australia has received this week, we could have hoped for a bit of settled weather! 

But no! As the rain bringing low pressure system pushed into the Tasman Sea, a vigorous wind field set in its wake with high pressure straddling it from the west. This has led to strong and gusty westerly component over much of Victoria and NSW on this Saturday. 

The dryness of these winds will quickly dry up any stockpile of laundry amassed over the last week - but it’ll be important to peg everything down or else everyone on the block will have mixed up briefs. Strong wind gusts have already been recorded today in NSW at Williamtown (91km/h), Murrurundi Gap (87km/h), Newcastle Nobby (82km/h) and Sydney Airport (78km/h), while Mount Hotham and Mount William recorded 78km/h and 76km/h wind gusts, respectively, in Victoria. 

With these gusty winds, Melbourne has felt no warmer than about 11 degrees over the course of today, while Sydney has struggled to feel warmer than about 14 degrees.  

Figure 1: Modelled (ECMWF) 10m wind gusts on Saturday 2pm AEDT showing gusty westerly winds across the Northern and Central Tablelands, as well as the Hunter, this afternoon. 

This gusty wind field over the southeastern corner of the country will persist over the weekend and into Monday (see figure 2 and 3 below) as another cold front approaches and crosses on Sunday. Wind gusts exceeding 90km/h are possible across elevated parts of southern NSW and eastern Victoria, with gusts reaching close to the 100km/h mark across alpine regions.

Figure 2: Modelled (ECMWF) 10m wind gusts on Sunday 2pm AEDT showing gusty westerly winds across Victoria and NSW. 

Figure 3: Modelled (ECMWF) 10m wind gusts on Monday 8am AEDT showing lingering gusty westerly winds across eastern parts of Victoria and NSW. 

Winds are expected to ease later on Monday, and into the remainder of the working week.