Big wet forecast dries up
A FORECAST backflip has Far Northerners set to ditch their umbrellas and throw out their ponchos today.
The Bureau of Meteorology changed its predicted 40mm downfall for Cairns yesterday afternoon when fresh modelling halved the chance of rain across the region.
Falls of more than 70mm were expected in parts of the Cassowary Coast, while Tablelanders’ prayers were apparently answered with upwards of 30mm forecast. More than 60,000 people saw the post on the Cairns Post’s Facebook page in the morning. But within hours new predictions had a 40 per cent chance of less than 7mm of rain falling in Cairns, Mareeba and Atherton from today until Sunday.
Innisfail residents can expect up to 10mm in the next three days.
Forecaster Julian De Morton said variable rainfall models cast doubt on original predictions.
“There is a little bit of uncertainty with the forecast,” he said. “Some have been forecasting pretty significant rain event for the region and in the last few runs the models have come in with a lot less rainfall.
“It was looking like it could be pretty decent, but it is now looking less likely.
“But we are not going rule out a reasonable amount of rain, especially for areas like Innisfail and south.” CROCODILES seem to be increasingly becoming workplace hazards for the Far North’s cane farmers.
A Gordonvale farmer snapped this photo of a healthysized saltwater croc sunning itself on the bank of a drain on his property near Mt Sapphire, south of Cairns, this week.
Division 1 Councillor Brett Moller believed the croc had swum upstream from a nearby creek into the drain, which separates two cane paddocks.
“I guess it shows that crocodile numbers are so great, they’re forcing smaller crocs into waterways where they never used to be,” he said.
“It is unacceptable that we are finding them in drains through cane farms. These are not the animals’ natural place.”
The sighting follows several crocs spotted near cane farms at Mareeba within the past three weeks, including a small croc that bit a farm worker on the hand.
Cr Moller is calling for more positive action to remove the reptiles by Department of Environment and Heritage Protection wildlife officers in his division.