Flooding remains but heavy rain easing in north Queensland

Australian Community Media

Heavy rain from ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper is expected to ease in north Queensland but flood warnings remain across the state.

Transcript

00:00 Heavy rain is easing across North Queensland,

00:02 but flooding impacts do remain.

00:04 This is an update for Monday afternoon,

00:06 1.30 p.m. Queensland time,

00:09 as we check out how ex-tropical cyclone Jasper

00:11 continues to impact the far north,

00:13 starting with a look at the rain radar

00:15 from the last few hours.

00:16 Compared to where we've been in recent days,

00:18 there's a lot less rain across this coastline here.

00:20 In particular, finally, a drier stretch of weather

00:23 for some of these places, Cairns and southwards.

00:26 Even Port Douglas has started to see that rainfall ease.

00:29 There's still some areas of rain

00:30 on the northern parts of the tropical coast,

00:32 but there's some gaps in it.

00:33 It's thinned out and it's more patchy

00:35 compared to what we've seen recently,

00:36 and the areas of heavy rain

00:38 have also contracted significantly.

00:41 Even though the rain is easing,

00:42 we do anticipate there to be some flood impacts

00:45 for a while, yet it takes a long time

00:47 for that water to flush out down and through the rivers.

00:49 So there's a number of ongoing flood warnings

00:52 across North Queensland,

00:53 including three major flood warnings

00:55 as of Monday afternoon.

00:57 The Daintree River, the Murray River, and the Herbert River.

01:01 We did have a fourth major flood warning

01:03 earlier in the day today for the Barron River here,

01:05 which has been affecting some northern parts of Cairns.

01:08 However, the river levels have come down there.

01:10 That's a moderate flood warning at the moment.

01:12 Still a dangerous situation,

01:14 but starting to see those flood waters recede.

01:17 A number of other moderate and minor flood warnings

01:19 are in place across this coastline at the moment,

01:21 and there's still a wide array of flood watches

01:24 across North Queensland.

01:26 As rain continues to fall through central areas,

01:28 and even some parts in the west here,

01:30 not just this North Tropical coastline.

01:33 In terms of warnings,

01:34 we still see the one heavy rain warning,

01:36 but that area is starting to shrink, starting to contract.

01:39 The heaviest rain is now north of Port Douglas,

01:41 and we've taken that out of the warning area.

01:44 We're looking up towards Cape Flattery here,

01:46 a pretty small region where we could still see

01:47 heavy to locally intense falls

01:50 over the next several hours through Monday afternoon,

01:53 and into Monday evening.

01:54 Where are we headed after that?

01:56 Well, let's check out Monday and Tuesday's forecast.

01:58 The heavy rain continues to be north of Port Douglas,

02:01 but through Monday and Tuesday,

02:02 it moves further up to the far north of the state,

02:05 and it will be some well-earned drier weather

02:08 making its way into the rest of these sodden,

02:10 saturated areas.

02:13 That is the update for now.

02:14 There's still major flooding going on,

02:16 so you still have to be cautious.

02:17 Number one piece of advice is do follow any information

02:20 and advice given to you by local emergency services

02:22 and emergency management.

02:24 Stay out of floodwaters.

02:25 Remember, if it's flooded, forget it.

02:27 You can always get the latest severe weather information

02:29 at the Bureau website.

02:30 We'll keep you up to date right through this rainfall event.

02:33 (gentle music)

02:36 (gentle music)

02:39 (electronic music)

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