This is the Friends of History Debating Society. I'm John Batchelor. Weather bomb. We go to Sydney, Australia, New South Wales. My dear colleague and mate, Jeremy Zakis, introduces me to the concern of all Australia, a weather bomb approaching the east coast of Australia, the most densely populated state, New South Wales.

It is wintertime.

Jeremy tells me that we're coming up to school holiday

and that the weather is supposed to be dry and cold at this moment.

So weather bomb.

Jeremy, what is a weather bomb and what's approaching you in New South Wales?

Good day to you.

Good day, John. Well, a weather bomb is exactly as dramatic as it sounds. It is literally a system of weather

that's typically somewhere near the coastline that is just going to pound us with really,

really extreme conditions of weather.

And when I say extreme, we're talking about either high winds, really, really low temperatures

or lots and lots of rain.

And John, I can report right now the weather bomb that we've actually got off the east coast

of Australia is all three.

We're not only starting to get the high winds as we speak, we're getting the very, very cold temperatures.

I'm talking sub-freezing temperatures, mostly up and down the coast from Sydney down to Melbourne.

And then in just a few days from now, we're also going to get the rain.

And the rain is going to be enormous.

It's going to stick around for a long time.

And it's truly going to make the start

of the school holidays absolutely horrendous for all those poor parents out there that were

planning to take their kids to camping trips onto the coastline and anywhere else, anywhere near

...