It's hard to believe that tomorrow is looking like a violent day for weather across South Australia. A high pressure ridge has kept large parts of the state nice and quiet today, but that will all change on Sunday. As the old saying goes, "it's the calm before the storm". 

A low-pressure system intensifying over eastern WA, coupled with a developing cold front is likely to bring damaging winds and severe storms to SA on Sunday as the system tracks into the Bight. 

Wind gusts are likely to exceed 60km/h across majority of the state, however are also expected to reach and potentially exceed 90km/h in places due to the intensity of the nearby low pressure system.  

Image: Wind gusts on Sun at 15:00 AEDT (14:30 ACDT) using ACCESS-G model. Purple shading is for wind gusts greater than 80km/h

The next threat is storms. A band of storms are likely to develop as a cold front crosses the state. These storms have the potential to contain destructive winds exceeding 120km/h, large hail and heavy rainfall. 

Image: 24hr precipitation to 23:00 AEDT (22:30 ACDT) on Sun 30th using ECMWF  

While a widespread 10-30mm isn't a particularly large amount of rain, under storm cells these amounts could be exceeded, but winds will be the main threat. The Bureau of Meteorology has already issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds which you can read here. Separate warnings will be issued for severe storms when they develop tomorrow.

Sunday will be the worst day for storms, but damaging winds and showers will persist until at least Tuesday before the low tracks further east, and high pressure starts building in the west – marking an end to the event for SA.