Heavy rainfall forecast for Brisbane and Sunshine Coast

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology says residents in North Brisbane need to brace for a potentially dangerous weather system.

Transcript

00:00 So, we do still have a severe weather warning current for heavy rainfall and flash flooding

00:06 that covers large parts of the southeast coast, pushing up into parts of the Wide Bay and

00:10 Burnett District as well.

00:11 Now that's covering areas just to the north of Brisbane.

00:15 In these areas we could see that heavy rainfall through the rest of today, but most notably

00:19 it's starting to come through in patches now.

00:22 So even if you're in a patch of eased rainfall, just be aware that when some heavier showers

00:27 or thunderstorms move back onshore, you could see that heavier rainfall returning very quickly.

00:32 Essentially it's just a message to everyone to remember that even if the rain is easing

00:36 up, the risk is not over yet.

00:37 That's why we still have a severe weather warning current for those areas.

00:41 The word 'volatile' seems to be used again and again to describe this particular weather

00:46 system.

00:47 Is it a particularly unpredictable one?

00:49 Look, it has been a very dynamic weather system, which means it has been changing quite quickly.

00:54 In addition to that, we do have thunderstorms in the mix as well, and as we're all well

00:57 aware, when thunderstorms are forecast, they can change the situation very quickly, and

01:03 they are also the determining factor usually for where we're going to see those highest

01:06 rainfall totals.

01:08 So combining that dynamic situation and the risk of thunderstorms means that we have seen

01:13 things changing quite quickly over the last two days with that rainfall coming in.

01:17 So flash flooding is a large risk, a considerable risk with the heavy rainfall that we're anticipating,

01:22 especially as the warning mentions locally intense rainfall as well.

01:26 That's even higher rainfall rates.

01:29 Flash flooding occurs very quickly when our storm drains and river systems get overwhelmed.

01:34 So even if you're in an area that's not currently flooded, if it starts raining, that flash

01:38 flooding could come on very quickly.

01:39 The impact that it has on our river systems can sometimes take a little longer though,

01:44 with those rivers sometimes taking hours or days to respond.

01:47 We don't currently have a flood warning current for the Brisbane River.

01:51 We have moderate flood warnings current for the Albert and Logan Rivers, closer to the

01:54 border, and for the Dawson River catchment.

01:56 However, the Brisbane River is covered in a flood watch.

02:00 That means it could potentially be upgraded into a flood warning over the coming hours

02:04 or next couple of days as water from flash flooding and other river rises feeds into

02:09 that system and we see that river starting to respond.

02:13 And talking about those delays of potentially days, I guess it might be a while until the

02:19 risk is expected to ease.

02:23 How long until people are sort of out of the woods?

02:26 So we're already starting to see the risk of heavy rainfall starting to contract north.

02:30 We've finalised that severe weather warning through northeast New South Wales and we're

02:34 even starting to see it ease up just on the Queensland side of the border.

02:38 But we may still see that risk continuing through into this evening, possibly even into

02:43 the early hours of tomorrow morning as far north as Garry.

02:47 However, we will see in those more southern parts of the warning area a trend towards

02:52 patchier showers and more isolated storms, hopefully through the later part of today.

02:56 However, residents in these areas should definitely be checking the Bureau's website continuously

03:01 for those warning updates.

03:03 As this situation is so dynamic, as I said, it can take sudden changes as the thunderstorms

03:08 or new waves of showers develop.

03:11 And Miriam, aren't we meant to be in the middle of an El Nino?

03:14 I mean, what's going on?

03:15 Why is it so wet?

03:17 So El Nino is a climate driver.

03:20 It doesn't necessarily account for the day to day or week to week weather systems that

03:24 move through.

03:25 It's also not a rainfall forecast.

03:27 It looks at conditions across the Pacific Ocean and tries to give us an indication of

03:31 how that might affect Australia.

03:32 And it is true.

03:33 Typically during an El Nino, we tend to see reduced rainfall through eastern Australia.

03:37 However, that's not always the case and every El Nino event is different.

03:42 And what we're seeing at the moment is an El Nino situation continuing, but weather

03:47 systems moving through which are tapping into intense moisture and producing this heavy

03:51 rainfall.

03:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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