TROPICAL WEATHER Stormy and hot weather to hit region
GRAB your “thunder buddy” because we’re about to have another balmy and stormy week in the Far North.
The Bureau of Meteorology is expecting up to 8mm of rain in Cairns this morning with thunderstorms most likely later in the day.
Maximum temperatures will reach 34C today with winds at 20-25km/h in the middle of the day before becoming lighter later on.
Meteorologist Peter Markworth said weather conditions had brought “plenty of storm triggers” to our region.
“A surface trough sitting in the air is building up plenty of moisture and heat, triggering thunderstorms as well as the severe heatwave conditions affecting the region” he said.
“It’s looking quite likely that there’ll be further storms over the next few days, with heavy rainfall and damaging winds looking quite likely.”
The trough extending from the Gulf to the Maranoa is also expected to drift westwards in the next few days, after which the wild weather is set to back off, although Mr Markworth said he wouldn’t rule out a few more storms after Thursday.
Intense thunderstorm and rain activity hit hard on Sunday evening and early yesterday morning.
According to Ergon Energy, there were 115,738 lightning strikes recorded within 200km radius of the Cairns CBD during that period.
In addition, a weather station based at Gorge Creek Or- chards in Mareeba recorded a thunderstorm strike rate of 500 strikes a minute – which included cloud-to-cloud strikes.
Orchard manager Marcello Avolio said the light show was “very impressive”.
“The night before, the light show was to our east but (Sunday) night it was to our west,” Mr Avolio said.
While there was not much rain recorded at the site, Mr Avolio said the wind did pick up substantially.
“At 1am, I recorded 60km/ h,” Mr Avolio said.
In other parts of the region, the overnight storms dumped more than 80mm of rain.
The most was recorded at Bartle View alert, west of Innisfail, with 83mm of rainfall since 9am Sunday morning.
Flatrock, near Chillagoe, recorded 75mm of rain in the same period.
Greenhaven Alert, near the Bartle View station, recorded 67mm.
The heaviest rain was inland. Innisfail recorded only 1.6mm while Cairns Airport recorded 14mm. In the Mareeba Shire, Myola recorded 30mm of rainfall.
Mr Avolio hoped more rain would come, especially after the long dry season.
“As long as the rain fills up Tinaroo Dam, I think we will all be happy,” he said.
A spokesman for Ergon Energy said there were a number of outages in the Far North during the overnight storms.
“Damage to Ergon Energy’s network in the Tablelands and Mareeba Shire was due mostly to branches and trees coming down into powerlines,” he said.
There were 173 outages recorded in the Cairns region, 1028 in Carpentaria Shire, 40 in Mareeba Shire and 1495 in the Tablelands Shire.
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