Heavy rain is forecast for large parts of Australia in the coming days, in what could be the start of a wetter than average winter and spring.

A huge, 5000km rainband will saturate parts of the east and west coast, with Geraldton in Western Australia set to be soaked and Queenslanders in Brisbane bound to open their brollies.

Vast swathes of the pastoral areas in western WA, as well as parts of South Australia and the Murray-Darling Basin – an area of more than one million square kilometres – will likely receive 25mm before the end of the week as the rainband moves towards the east coast.

About 50mm of rain will fall across Sunday and Monday in the outback regions of NSW and southern Queensland with this bout of wet weather expected to exceed the average rainfall for the whole of winter.

Sky News meteorologist Rob Sharpe said Sydney had experienced very wet weather “day in and day out for a long period of time”.

“We’ll continue to see a few showers along parts of the east coast today, mainly in the morning but then again, in the evening, as this rain event creeps down across the eastern states - Victoria seeing some of that wet weather building today as well,” Sharpe said, as parts of South Australia were tipped to see more showers in the coming hours.

“You can see rain developing for Melbourne, Canberra and for Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle, chance of an early shower and then showers most likely again this evening in those areas.

“Much of the day should be fairly dry for the NSW coastline until the rain picks up tonight.”

The rainband will continue to move across the east into Tuesday with wet weather continuing into the morning for Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, with south-eastern parts of Queensland also hit with the weather system.

Any reprieve will be short-lived, however, as a trough and cold front containing damaging winds and heavy showers makes its way through the south-west of Australia, stretching up to the Pilbara region.

A severe weather warning for damaging winds was in effect overnight but was cancelled earlier in the morning as the gusts began to simmer down.

Warmer than average days are likely across the northern, eastern and southern parts of the country, while warmer than average nights are expected across Australia.

In Sydney on Tuesday, rain of up to 10mm is expected but will pass by Wednesday when temperatures are forecast to reach a maximum of 19C.

Brisbane will experience a bout of wet weather, with skies to clear on Wednesday when temperatures are expected to hit a maximum of 25C.

Hobart will receive heavy rain, with it expected to push more than 50mm.

Melbourne will remain raining into Tuesday with possible showers on Wednesday with a maximum temperature of 16C.

Meanwhile Darwin will remain sunny and hot all week with a maximum temperature of 33C set for Wednesday.