There is a cold front approaching the Northern Rivers this afternoon that is likely bring thunderstorms, potentially severe.

Helen Kirkup from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said that it is too early to predict the severity of these thunderstorms but the BOM will be monitoring the situation and release the necessary warnings when the probability becomes more likely. Standby your mobile phones.

At present the cold front is out west and creeping over the tablelands bringing widespread rainfall with it.

This rainfall will decrease as it moves over the tablelands so the rain will become more isolated with Lismore predicted to receive between 2 and 10mm across the region.

What is going to be noticeable is the drop in temperatures associated with that cold front.

Noticeable, in that they are below what we are used to so 22 degrees instead of our regular 27-28 over the last month. The average for May is 23 degrees.

If you haven't already, you may want to get the doona out of the cupboard as the minimum temperatures are where the change will be felt most. We will be waking up to temps of about 7 degrees over the next few days.

It is not full winter just yet with Helen Kirkup saying "once this front has passed through we will experience warmer conditions by Wednesday but the cold fronts are reaching further north as the winter patterns settle in".

You can keep a check on the weather through The Lismore App weather radar button which takes you to the BOM (Weather Radar) of to check out the weather over the next week (Weather).