TROPICAL Cyclone Laurence is on a mission which will bring soaking rain and storms to Australia's biggest deserts during the next few days.
Widespread falls of 50 millimetres to 100mm have already fallen over the Great Sandy Desert in northern WA and Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory. In line to pick up a similar soaking is the Gibson Desert, Great Victoria Desert and Sandy Desert. This will bring them to life and get many inland rivers and creeks running for the first time in many months.
A large area of the Murray-Darling catchment will also have amassed 50mm to 100mm of rain by this time next week.
Rain should arrive in Adelaide on Wednesday night, Hobart and Melbourne on Christmas Eve, Canberra and Sydney on Christmas Day and Brisbane on Boxing Day. Rain should clear from Adelaide by Christmas Day.
Laurence will also generate destructive gusts in the early part of his journey before it weakens to a tropical low.
At 6pm on Monday winds greater than 210km/h were recorded at Mandora, east of Port Hedland. At 11am Tuesday Laurence, despite being 250km from the ocean, its main energy source, was still a severe category three system with potential for generating 150km/h winds.
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