THE BIG WET HITS
REGION GETS DRENCHED
HOUSEHOLDERS hoping to get the laundry dry this weekend may have to delay pegging out clothes until next week.
An unusual out-of-season cloud band drawing moisture from Indonesian skies will mean a dumping of decent rainfall heading into the weekend.
Already this month the May average of 90.7mm has been exceeded with 115.6mm falling in the gauge, however the all-time May record of 320mm set in 1964 looks unlikely to be broken this year.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Shane Kennedy said there was currently a thick cloud band across the majority of the state.
“And that is expected to produce widespread rainfall across the tropical north into Friday and Saturday,” he said.
“Whereas the last couple of days have been much more focused around the north tropical coast with some onshore flow, it’s now shifting to a widespread rain scenario.
“We are likely to see between 15mm and 30mm across the majority of the area on Friday and into Saturday as well.”
Light falls throughout May at the Cairns Airport and Cairns Racecourse peaked on Wednesday when 75.2mm and 89.2mm fell.
Mr Kennedy said, although the wet season had officially passed, some years produced a wet transition into the dry season. However he said the current weather was “unusual”.
“(And) April was very dry across the area and certainly it’s an unusual set up where we are having tropical moisture being drawn in from Indonesia and creating a cloud band all the way across the country,” he said.
“It certainly is unusual, for this time of year.” The meteorologist said the May rainfall record in Mareeba of 46mm could be broken if predicted falls hit the ground at the weekend.
“If Mareeba gets particularly heavy falls in the next couple of days (the record) could be broken” he said.
“It’s maybe an outside chance.”
Today the bureau is predicting a 70 per cent chance of showers which will increase to 95 per cent tomorrow.