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Australians looking to offset cost of living with Boxing Day Sales, industry predicts
The National Retail Association are expecting Australians to spend $3bn on Boxing Day today, seeking out sales in response to inflationary pressures driving up the cost of living.
Interim chief executive Lindsay Carroll said while online shopping had grown in popularity, 50% of shoppers still preferred to head to stores in person.
The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is predicting total post-Christmas shopping amounting to $23.5bn across the entire December 26 to January 15 period.
The predicted spend looks to be a 7.9% increase on last year’s post-Christmas shopping .
Roy Morgan analysts anticipated New South Wales shoppers to spend the most, up an expected 9.5% on 2021.
Food, household goods and clothing are expected to be the top three most popular categories.
ARA chief executive Paul Zahra said shoppers tended to wait for Boxing Day discounts to spend on themselves, whereas pre-Christmas spending was usually reserved for gifts.
But he acknowledged inflation and unseasonal weather was likely skewing the spend predictions upwards.
– with AAP
Second day of heatwave for southern Australia
Here are some of those heat warnings mentioned in the first post, for those who want to have a closer look at which areas will experience the most intense temperatures:
⚠️A heatwave warning has been issued with maxima reaching 35-40°C across much of the State between Sunday-Tuesday. Tuesday night into Wednesday is also likely to be very warm with temperatures only dropping to 20-25°C across much of Victoria. https://t.co/Kjb1hLTt3r⚠️ pic.twitter.com/3HqkkWAY19
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) December 24, 2022
It’s coming!
One of the first heat waves for the summer will start to affect NSW come Christmas Day.
Good idea to start checking the daily fire danger rating for the area you live in or are visting.
We live with fire so we live bush fire ready. #NSWRFS @BOM_NSW pic.twitter.com/wSUxRV8pgx— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) December 22, 2022
Two dead in light plane crash in the Northern Territory
Two people have died in a light plane crash in the Northern Territory’s Top End.
The pilot and passenger left Gove Airport in East Arnhem about 8.30am on Saturday bound for Katherine, 530km south-west, but failed to reach their destination.
Police and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority launched a search which ended on Sunday afternoon when the plane wreckage was found.
AMSA said the wreckage with two dead was found about 250km north-east of Katherine.
– AAP
Renmark and Berri expecting flood peak today
Narramore said there is “big flooding and major inundation on a number of areas living right on the Murray in South Australia”:
This is a culmination of all that flooding we saw in Victoria and New South Wales back in October and November, all finding its way into the Murray.
It peaked in the Mildura, and is falling there.
Peaking around today and tomorrow in the Renmark Berri area.
For communities further downstream, those peaks in the coming days and into the next week.
People in the Bolto shack community were also told to shelter in place after damage to a road cut them off on Christmas Day, AAP reports.
Heatwave conditions in South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania to lead to elevated fire danger: BoM
It’s “a different story down south,” Narramore says.
We do have low to severe intensity heatwave conditions forecast for large parts of South Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania.
We’re looking at 37 degrees today and 40 degrees tomorrow through Adelaide.
Melbourne, 32 today, and 37 tomorrow.
And even Hobart could get the low 30s tomorrow.
The minimums, the overnight lows, are expected to be high – in the high teens to low 20s tonight and tomorrow night. Some areas Tuesday night could be into the high 20s.
It’s that lack of relief that’s causing the heatwave conditions.
Then we’re going to see a change move through later on Wednesday, early morning Wednesday in South Australia. Late in the day for Victoria and Tasmania.
That could lead to some elevated fire dangers. So watch out for that in South Australia and Victoria. Much cooler and seasonable temperatures on Thursday and Friday.
Isolated rainfall of up to 400mm predicted for Northern Territory as flood watches current for all rivers
Narramore said ex-tropical cyclone Ellie has brought some very heavy rainfall to large parts of the Northern Territory since it crossed on Friday.
As it tracks slowly through the Timber Creek area, all the way down to Tennant Creek, it’s brought hundreds of millimetres of rain. That’s led to the closures of the Victorian Highway and parts of the Stuart Highway through the NT as well.
We’ve seen falls up to 350mm, well inland, with this system. We’re experiencing some locations getting 100 to 200mm a day, and a severe weather warning is current for parts of the Barkly area. That includes the Tennant Creek area and towards the Queensland border if you’re heading towards Mount Isa.
Then it’s going to slowly move back west-north-westwards to near the Kimberley area as we get into the end of the week with more heavy rainfall likely to lead to flooding.
Narramore said the slow moving nature of the event is causing more extreme weather:
The slow-moving nature of it means you’re getting days of rain and thunderstorms in the same area, which is leading to these high falls, widespread 100 to 300mm. Isolated falls even up to 400mm possible in the coming days. This is in a part of the area that only experiences a few hundred millimetres in are a year. Some locations could see up to a year’s worth of rainfall over a few days.
There are also severe weather warnings for damaging winds as well as intense rainfall.
Could be some gusty winds with some of the rain there as the tropical low continues to spin around the NT. We’re seeing flood watches current for all rivers across the NT, particularly for Katherine and large parts. That means rainfall likely to lead to flash and riverine flooding in these areas.
Fog set to disperse in time for Sydney to Hobart start
Dean Narramore, a senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology told ABC News it’s a combination of conditions causing the fog , but it’s set to clear well before the Sydney to Hobart leaves the harbour at 1pm:
Conditions cooled. It’s really moist offshore, cooler air than normal, that’s led the air to condense and turn into fog.
We had east-north-easterly winds drag that fog onshore. It’s covered much of the Sydney basin and a lot of the New South Wales coast in fog.
Thankfully in the coming hours the sun will heat that fog, it will disperse. And by lunchtime we should see partly cloudy conditions return.
Temperatures around 29C and a light north-north-easterly for the big start of the race.
Here’s another visual of just how thick that fog was this morning:
Sydney fog delays flights, halts ferries
Sydney is waking up to a foggy start to Boxing Day, which is less than ideal for the racers making the final preparations for the Sydney to Hobart race which leaves the harbour at 1pm today.
The famous Sydney to Hobart yacht race kicks off later today. And just as well it’s not a dawn start as some dramatic fog rolled down the harbour early today.
If you squint, you might make out the Harbour Bridge. pic.twitter.com/WQWs2xgXEW— tim ritchie (@timritchie) December 25, 2022
The heavy fog has caused flights into Sydney airport to be delayed and the city’s ferry services cancelled, AAP reports.
The Bureau of Meteorology predicts the fog to clear before the morning is out.
A Sydney airport spokeswoman confirmed some flights had been delayed on Monday morning but services were returning to normal.
Meanwhile, Sydney’s Transport Management Centre has said there is no prediction on when ferry services will resume.
A statement from the centre said:
No Sydney ferry services are currently running due to heavy fog.
Passengers are advised to delay their trips or use alternative transport.
There is no forecast for when services will resume.”
Good morning!
For many, Boxing Day follows as another holy day consecrated to the Test match, while for others it’s a day of much-needed relaxation after the efforts of Christmas lunch preparations. But the news rolls on …
Many Australians will be sweltering through Boxing Day with heatwave warnings in place for many parts of the country as well as flooding expected in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.
A heatwave alert has been issued for parts of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. The heat is predicted to continue until midweek, with temperatures getting up into the 40s in some areas.
In the Northern Territory and parts of western Queensland, an ex-tropical cyclone will bring locally intense, six-hour rainfall totals of up to 200mm. The Bureau of Meteorology warned it could bring dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding to the Barkly district, particularly areas east of Tennant Creek.
To the south, seven emergency warnings have been issued for flooding along the River Murray in South Australia. The town of Renmark is expected to peak today.
At least 14 levees have failed across the state so far, and more than 3,000 homes have been disconnected from electricity. The river is expected to peak down stream in Mannum between 7 and 10 January.
You can read more about the flood situation from South Australian reporter Tory Shepherd:
Looking back to Christmas Day, two men died in separate drowning incidents.
A 19-year-old from Melbourne’s north-west died while body-surfing near Lorne on Victoria’s Surf Coast. His companion has been airlifted to hospital while a third man is in a local hospital.
A man died after being pulled from the water at Windsor beach in north-west of Sydney. Paramedics tried to resuscitate the man but were unsuccessful.
There have also been two people who have died in a light plane crash in the Northern Territory’s Top End.
There will also be a lot of sporting news around today too as the Sydney to Hobart yacht race kicks off, and the Boxing Day Test between Australia and South Africa at the MCG.
Let’s get going!
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