The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting “widespread damaging winds” and potential flooding across several states over the next two days.

Severe weather warnings are in place, with a cold front passing through SA today, moving into Victoria, Tasmania and south-western NSW overnight. Winds up to 120kph are possible in some areas, and severe thunderstorms could develop.

The warnings come as the flood-inducing negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) weather system continues.

The latest update from the bureau says most climate models predict the negative IOD will persist through the southern hemisphere spring.

“Stronger-than-usual easterly winds across the tropical eastern Indian Ocean over the last three weeks have weakened the IOD event, however, this is most likely to be temporary,” it says.

“A majority of the five climate models surveyed by the bureau predict the negative IOD will persist into November. A negative IOD increases the chance of above average winter–spring rainfall for much of southern and eastern Australia.”

A cooling of the tropical Pacific may also be contributing to wetter than median climate outlooks in Australia, the bureau says.

Click here for the latest warnings.