Over one million lightning strikes have been recorded within 700km of Wagga Wagga as widespread storms spread through Victoria and NSW on Monday.

Widespread thunderstorms broke out on Monday 2nd along a cold front stretching from the northwest of the country all the way through the interior and down to southern NSW, Victoria, and the northeast corner of Tasmania. Storms continued through the entire day with strikes recorded over the southeast from the early morning through to the late evening but were most widespread in the afternoon.

Image: Lightning detected by the Weatherzone Total Lightning Network (WZTLN) on Monday within 700km of Wagga Wagga.

Many of the storms were warned as severe with large hail and damaging winds. A wind gust of 96km/h was recorded in Wilcannia, its strongest gust in 3 years. These large hailstones were picked up near Primrose Sands in Tasmania.

Image: hailstones near Primrose Sands in Tas on January 2, 2023. Source: @Jillot / Twitter

The cold front responsible was particularly unstable on Monday because of a combination of an upper trough, the feed of tropical moisture from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie and the warmth of a heatwave ahead of the change.

This front and upper trough are continuing to cross the east on Tuesday, producing more thunderstorms, albeit far less frequently than on Monday. Some of these storms are severe, so stay up to date with the latest warnings here.