RAIN WILL CONTINUE FOR NQ
ISOLATED falls of more than 100mm are possible for Townsville in coming days, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned.
But the majority of heavy rain will fall further north in North West Queensland and the Gulf country.
BOM forecaster Kimba Wong said showers and thunderstorms were still possible in the Townsville region, with the potential for “triple digit” falls of rain in the next few days.
“(It will) certainly be nothing like the rainfall we saw in Townsville last year,” she said.
“What we had last year was about two metres of rain over a 10-day period, we’re really expecting rainfall totals to be much lower than that and over a much shorter period of time.” Despite the bureau’s forecast, Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said people were still on edge after last year’s devastating floods.
“There is no doubt that (memories of) last year’s event will still have people quite unsettled,” she said.
Some of the northern suburbs of Townsville have recorded more than 100mm of rain since Saturday with Rollingstone and Saunders Beach copping the biggest downpours. Cr Hill said the Ross River Dam had risen 1 per cent in the past few days and was now sitting at 57 per cent.
“We’re not seeing a lot of rain going into the dam itself,” she said. “The catchment is very dry, we haven’t had any heavy rain since July last year.
“With that dry catchment, it will take some time before we see any run-off into the dam.” Cr Hill said there was still a chance of flash flooding in some areas.
“If there is heavy rainfall, we are still saying to the community, if it is flooded, forget it,” she said.
The Mayor said this was traditionally the time Townsville received the most rain.
“At this time of year, many families recall that whenever school starts, we seem to be at the start of a wet season and having to take our children to school in raincoats and gumboots,” she said.
“I don’t think this year is going to be any different.”
Ms Wong said the low pressure system would move north into the western part of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
“What we have at the moment is a tropical low pressure system sitting south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, drawing in a really deep, moist air mass over the state of Queensland,” she said.
“We are expecting some very heavy rainfall to start coming out of those showers and thunderstorms around northern parts of the state in coming days.”
The bureau’s severe weather warning for the Herbert and Lower Burdekin has been cancelled.
Ms Wong said there was a
chance of heavier rainfalls in the central west, stretching towards the Townsville area.
“(The) Charters Towers area is the most favourable for severe thunderstorms,” she said.
“As we move through the next couple of days, the focus moves a little bit further north and west, we can expect some isolated heavy rainfall totals with thunderstorms across the peninsula and across the Gulf country.”
Minor flood warnings remain in place for the Flinders River near Richmond.
The Flinders River is currently 0.15m below the road level at Flinders River Bridge in Croydon Rd.
Cloncurry River is also expected to reach minor flooding levels.