BOLT FROM THE BLUE
LIGHT RELIEF AFTER DOWNPOUR
THE skies in Townsville finally opened yesterday and brought some rain and spectacular storms to tantalise parched residents.
A total of only 13.6mm of rain fell between 8am and 9pm but last night the city was treated to a lightning show which caused blackouts to 1200 homes in Bohle Plains, Bohle, Deeragun and Shaw.
Storm photos flooded social media depicting graphic images from throughout the city as lightning continued to strike for several hours.
BOM meteorologist Sean Fitzgerald said areas slightly inland from Townsville received the best drenching from the morning storm.
“There was some nice rainfall around Townsville ( in the morning), particularly Stony Creek which got 68mm, and 57mm of that fell in an hour,” he said.
“Townsville itself got a little less with 8.4mm, but that’s a lot for Townsville.
“There was plenty of falls around the 20mm mark and in some cases up to 60mm, that’s pretty good. The further inland you got, the better it got.”
Mr Fitzgerald said Townsville could be optimistic that more rain would fall in the region.
“There are a few more storms on the way,” he said.
“As far as I know ( today) it will be more north of Townsville and inland areas but it does become slightly more likely into Thursday and again on Friday.
“Friday will probably the next best chance for anything good ( in the city).”
Mr Fitzgerald said dew point temperatures in Townsville had been particularly high, similar to most of the Queensland coast.
“The big story for temperature lately is dew points. In excess of 24 is impressive and currently in Townsville it’s 45,” he said.
“So it is extremely moist in Towns- ville at the moment. It helps the rainfall, the whole atmosphere gets soaked through.”
Townsville is expected to reach above- average temperatures today and tomorrow but will cool down later into the week and return to average on Friday.
“Townsville is looking at about 6C degrees above average today, and Woolshed and Charters Towers could reach up to 8C above average,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
“With that kind of moisture around, you are really going to feel it.”
The chance of cyclones in the region remains very low.