If you are making plans for outdoors new year’s eve celebrations this year, the advice from the Bureau of Meterology (BoM) is “take an umbrella”.

BoM NSW forecaster David Wilke said the weather pattern over the next few days “is a rainy one” with persistent showers forecast and a chance of storms most days this week.

So, the good news for new year’s eve is – it might rain a bit, but it won’t rain all night.

“It will be on and off throughout the day leading into it, so it won’t come as a surprise,” David said. “But, don’t just expect the rain to stop at midnight. It’s a good idea to check the radar as we get closer to the day.”

In the lead up to new year’s eve on Thursday, David said severe storms are possible, but are more likely in the ranges than near the coast – and people should monitor the situation as the days go on.

“On new year’s day, it looks like we will have showers and it will be partly cloudy - maybe not the way we want to spent the first day of the new year,” he said.

Temperature

The forecast temperature around midnight on December 31 will be in the low 20s, so you might need to wear warmer clothes - and a raincoat.

With a top temperature of 32 predicted for today, the temperature was sitting on 29 degrees at 1pm. Tomorrow, the temperature is tipped to be a cooler 27 degrees, then for the rest of week a top of 26 to 27 degrees is predicted each day.

Rain and flood

If you are worried about the intensity of the rainfall that’s coming, David said the predicted rainfall totals for the next week are “pretty moderate” and nothing like the weather system we saw that caused the recent flash flooding in Lismore.

David said most of the coming rain will be from the east, as a trough sitting offshore moves inland over the region and easterly winds provide “quite a bit of humidity on land”.

Next week, he said the weather will become warmer leading into Monday, with temperatures in the 30s expected again and possible showers.