The hyperactive hurricane season in the Pacific has jumped up another gear, spawning a record trio of category 4 strength tropical storms that will give the powerful El Nino event yet another boost.

Even Sydney's burst of early spring warmth couldn't escape the odd quirky political link.

The trail of destruction left behind suggests the supercell storm that struck Forbes Creek south of Bungendore on Saturday was a tornado, on the same night Canberra had its highest daily rainfall for the month.

Residents across an arc of eastern Australia stretching from Queensland to Tasmania should be on watch for more potentially severe weather this weekend as another winter storm loom, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Don't forget the brolly: Melburnians are waking up to the third-wettest day of the year, and the rain isn't going away any time soon.

There's good news though - it won't get worse.

The Coodardie cattle station may not be the most likely place to find a farm in sync with nature.

Sydneysiders can expect rising humidity in coming days, making the apparently endless summer seem a bit more uncomfortable.

Moderate global warming that has occurred as a result of human emissions has quadrupled the frequency of certain heat extremes since the Industrial Revolution, study finds.

Freezing Sunday rain and winds saw Mothers Day picnics cancelled in the capital, while light snow dusted the mountains earlier in the morning.

Weather-related disasters in the past two decades have killed more than 600,000 people and inflicted economic losses estimated at trillions of dollars, the United Nations said Monday, warning that the frequency and impact of such events was set to rise.

As of 9am on Friday, Melbourne was the hottest capital city in Australia. And that's not about to change.

Parts of the ACT and Snowy Mountains have been warned to expect damaging winds in the early hours of Thursday morning.

El Nino assists January to have the biggest increase over the previous record for any month in a more than a century of records

Top daily temperatures are on the rise for rest of the long weekend as clear skies and sunshine take the edge off the chilly start to winter.

Parts of Sydney are copping the odd isolated thunderstorm on Monday afternoon, but the storms are unlikely to reach the severity of the weekend's tempest.

The restart of Sydney's desalination plant is proceeding faster than expected, helping to slow the drawdown of the city's reservoirs amid the ongoing drought.

Tired of the rain? Get used to it - as four grey and wet days settle in over the city.

Sydney commuters are in for an easier run home as the worst of the wintry weather dissipates for the day - and probably the rest of the month.

It seemed to sneak up on us, this storm that washed away houses and swept away lives, that devoured beaches and turned suburban railway lines into rivers.