A strong cold front is crossing south-eastern Australia today, with the risk of damaging winds across multiple states into tomorrow. Taking a look at our current Severe Weather Warnings for damaging winds, we can see that they span multiple states. In South Australia, those winds are already increasing across parts of the south-east, likely to persist until later today.

In Victoria, a warning covers many of our elevated parts of the state, as well as some exposed coastal areas, most notably large parts of the Melbourne metro area are included in this warning today and could see those damaging winds. Now, those winds are starting to ramp up this morning, but are likely to ease back through western parts of the warning area later today. We could see the risk of damaging winds persisting through the east into early tomorrow.

In parts of Tasmania, the risk is expected to develop from late tonight into tomorrow across central and eastern parts of the warning area. It's worth noting that Hobart is included in that warning area. For the west coast though, we could see some of those damaging wind gusts through this afternoon.

In New South Wales, our warning covers parts of the southern tablelands, southern ranges, snowy mountains and even parts of the Australian Capital Territory. In those warning areas, winds are likely to pick up late today, going into tomorrow and continue through much of tomorrow as well, with the possibility that this warning could extend further north across the central tablelands.

Now, we've already seen some strong and gusty winds developing over the past few hours, with some damaging wind gusts. Looking at some of those gusts that we've recorded since 9:00 am AEST this morning, we can see we've already had a 93km/hr wind gust at Strathalbyn in South Australia, 96km/hr at Kilmore Gap in Victoria. Down in Tasmania, we've seen 115km/hr at kunanyi/Mount Wellington.

So let's take a look at the weather system driving these strong winds now. It's this cold front you see here. It impacted southern parts of Western Australia yesterday and is now moving across the Bight. Ahead of this frontal system we've got strong northerly winds. So winds coming from the north pulling down to the south-east. They're bringing warm conditions ahead of the frontal system. We are expecting a top of 25 °C in Adelaide today, 24 °C in Melbourne and 23 °C in Hobart, with these gusty winds continuing as the cold front approaches. Showers and thunderstorms may develop with the front, mostly with those thunderstorms along our coastal areas. The front will move through Adelaide this afternoon, likely reaching Melbourne later tonight. Most areas are going to see fairly patchy showers, with rainfall totals on the low to locally moderate side of things.

Our cold front will continue to sweep eastwards overnight tonight, but we have got another weather system approaching for Tasmania. That's what we call a follow up front. Another cold front that's coming through hot on the heels of our first one. That means that even as these first front moves eastwards through the course of Tuesday, windy and wet conditions are likely to persist over Tasmania a little bit longer. We are likely to see small hail and some thunderstorms continuing in the wake of our frontal system as cooler air starts to move in.

It's worth noting that our maximum temperatures on Wednesday are significantly lower than what we're expecting today. For example, Hobart is only expecting 13 °C on Wednesday, 10 °C less than what we're forecasting today.

Taking a look at our rainfall totals expected between midnight last night all the way out to 6:00 am AEST Wednesday morning. You can see that most areas are expecting generally low to moderate accumulations over the next couple of days. That's why we're seeing a lot of these blue green colors and this pale orange here, that's indicating less than 10mm or 15mm or so. Some areas will see slightly more rainfall accumulating with this cold front. Most notably about parts of eastern Victoria, south-east alpine New South Wales, and through parts of western and northern Tasmania, especially as that second cold front comes through. So it's not going to be a terribly wet, cold front. It's more going to be a windy one.

Key weather impacts we could see with those strong to damaging winds: damage to trees and property as those strong winds move through, particularly across our metro areas as well. That could lead to hazardous driving conditions as dangerous crosswinds develop or debris is moved over the roads. We could also see some disruptions to travel and utilities, depending on where those strong winds may produce some damage.

So if you or someone you know lives across the south-east, it is essential to stay on top of those warnings as they'll tell you what to expect. You can find all the details via the Bureau's website, the BOM Weather app, and via our social media. Stay safe and we'll catch you next time.