Melbourne, March 2 : Emergency warnings for life-threatening flash flooding have been issued for vast areas of the southeast Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales (NSW).

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) on Monday issued severe weather warnings for heavy and locally intense rainfall across regions in central and northern Victoria and south and southwestern NSW.

It said that six-hourly rainfall totaling up to 100 mm was possible on Monday across the warning area spanning over 650 km from the central Victorian town of Seymour to the outback mining town of Broken Hill in far western NSW.

"Locally intense rainfall, which may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding, is possible throughout the warning area with thunderstorms this morning," it said.

The State Emergency Service branches in Victoria and NSW have advised people to avoid driving through floodwater and to stay away from waterways.

Flood watch updates issued by the BoM for both states on Sunday said that more than 20 catchments were likely to be affected by the heavy rainfall event, Xinhua news agency reported.

On February 27, an emergency warning for dangerous flash flooding had been issued in South Australia SA due to an intense rainfall event.

In a severe weather warning had issued on Friday morning, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said that heavy to intense rainfall was expected to hit SA's arid north and northeast on Friday before spreading south towards the state capital of Adelaide over the weekend.

The BoM weather station in the northwest pastoral district town of Coober Pedy had not recorded more than 5 mm of rain on a single day since October 2025 and did not record any rainfall for the entirety of January or December.

/IANS