Wild weather continues along east coast after strong winds and heavy rain caused widespread damage on Christmas Day. Follow live
- Wild east coast weather: two people killed by falling trees, more than 100,000 Queensland homes without power
- Gallery: Boxing Day reveals severe weather damage from Christmas night storms on Australia’s east coast
What’s causing the storms?
Senior meteorologist Angus Hines from the Bureau of Meteorology just spoke to ABC News about the severe thunderstorms hitting the east coast.
[It is] primarily driven by some warm humid air in the low levels of the atmosphere, which is partly contributed to by a ton of warm ocean temperatures off the east coast of Australia providing a lot of that warmth and humidity into the atmosphere.
We also have a big low pressure system higher up which just provides that extra energy and support which allows these thunderstorms do develop and grow, and as you say, they have been causing extensive disruptive weather over the last few days.
