Flooding rains expected across three Australian states as parched interior receives drenching

Wet weather to batter parts of Queensland, NSW and Tasmania through Thursday, with warnings of flash flooding

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Multiple states are at risk of flash flooding on Thursday, with severe weather warnings issued in New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania.

Ilana Cherny, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said the wet weather battering eastern Australia was being driven by a broad low-pressure trough that had drawn in “a lot of tropical moisture across the region”.