El Niño set to be wettest on record as storms soak Australia's east

Key points

• Australia is on track to record its wettest El Niño year, with above-average national winter-spring rainfall for the first time. Storms have already drenched Sydney with more than 100 millimetres and caused flash flooding in central Queensland.
• Forecasters expect showers and thunderstorms to affect more than half the country over the coming week, with some Queensland and northern NSW areas possibly exceeding 50 millimetres.
• November is also tipped to be wetter than normal across most of the country, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.