Flooding continues, falls easing in north-east Queensland

Australian Community Media

Significant flooding continues in north-east Queensland but heavy falls are now easing.

Transcript

00:00Areas of significant flooding continue to impact the northeast tropical coast of Queensland,

00:05even as heavy rainfall start to ease off.

00:08Overnight, we've seen our flood warning for the Herbert River be upgraded to a major

00:13flood warning as significant rain has fed into that system.

00:17The river level at Halifax is now sitting above 5.3 metres above that major flood level

00:23and it may reach 5.5 metres later this afternoon.

00:26We may also see major flooding occurring on the Herbert River at Ingham through the

00:30course of today.

00:31A number of other flood warnings remain in place, including a moderate flood warning

00:35for the Bowley River and several minor flood warnings elsewhere along this stretch of coast.

00:41Rainfall from the past 24 hours has built on top of very high rainfall totals over the

00:45past 4-5 days.

00:48Grounds are very saturated and rivers are already swollen, meaning that this additional

00:52rainfall that we've seen over the past day has simply nowhere to go and therefore

00:57has greatly increased the flooding situation in these areas.

01:00Namely, it's been these persistent areas of showers and thunderstorms streaming in

01:05from those offshore areas and feeding into the coast.

01:08In the 24 hours to 9 o'clock this morning, we've seen 453 mm at Cardwell Gap, 351 mm

01:15at Trebonne and 267 mm at Ingham Airport, with widespread totals in the 1-250 mm range

01:24across this entire stretch of coast between Cairns and around Eyre.

01:30Through the rest of today, we're likely to see showers and thunderstorms continuing across

01:33this same stretch of coast.

01:35Now the risk of heavy falls is still present, but it's much, much lower than what we saw

01:40yesterday and in the overnight period.

01:43As we move through the later part of today and go into tomorrow, those heavy falls are

01:47likely to become even less of a risk, with showers starting to become a little bit patchier

01:51as well.

01:52Now, as I said, thunderstorms may play a part in boosting those rainfall totals today, but

01:58it's only non-severe storms that we're expecting across the coast between Cairns all the way

02:02down to Mackay or so.

02:05Severe thunderstorms are not currently expected, as that heavy rainfall is too low a risk to

02:10reach that grade.

02:12If we zoom out a little bit, we can see that storms are actually possible across much broader

02:15parts of northern and inland Queensland.

02:19We've got significant moisture streaming off the Gulf of Carpentaria and feeding into a

02:23likely thunderstorm risk across parts of the Peninsula, the Gulf Country and the Northwest

02:28Districts.

02:29Now, some of those areas have seen rainfall totals of 50-90 mm in the past 24 hours, and

02:34this additional moisture streaming in is going to feed into any showers and storms that develop

02:39through the rest of today.

02:40We may even push towards the southwest of Queensland as well, with rainfall possible

02:45in those areas further south.

02:49So to round out, the main hazard we're seeing today remains the major flooding on the Herbert

02:53River and the minor to moderate flooding that we're seeing elsewhere across this stretch

02:57of coast.

02:58As we go through the next few days, we are going to see that risk of heavy falls easing

03:02back, which means gradually our rivers will start to come down as well.

03:06But the acute impacts from days of heavy rain are still being felt.

03:10Now, you can find the detailed forecast via our website or via the BOM Weather app, and

03:15of course, listen to all advice from your emergency services during this period.

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