Flash flooding again hits Qld as more torrential rain falls

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Flash flooding has again hit North and Central Queensland with torrential rain dumping down overnight and today.
A severe weather warning is again in place as a new monsoonal system settles over the State.

The Bureau of Meteorology has this afternoon extended the severe weather warning it issued this morning, with damaging winds and flash flooding now expected in the following expanded list of districts:

* southern parts of the Peninsula;

* far eastern parts of the Gulf Country;

* the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders;

* western parts of the Atherton Tablelands;

* the Herbert and Lower Burdekin;

* northern parts of the Central Highlands;

* the Central Coast and Whitsundays;

* Capricornia;

* Wide Bay and Burnett; and

* Southeast Coast.

At 3pm the monsoon trough lay across northern Queensland, with a 997 hectapascal low located between Georgetown and Richmond.

It has moved from a location 150 km east of Normanton as of 4am today.

The Bureau says the low is moving south-east and is expected to be located about 200km southwest of Charters Towers at around midnight tonight, and near Hervey Bay late on Tuesday night.

The low is expected to remain an intense system as it moves rapidly towards the south-east with the likelihood of very heavy rainfall, particularly on its eastern side.

The heaviest falls during the next 24 hours will occur between Bowen and Bundaberg, both along the coast and extending inland to the recently flooded Clermont and Emerald area.

The heavier falls will extend southward towards the southern Wide Bay and Southeast Coast districts late on Tuesday.

In an ominous sign for areas of the Central Highlands and the South West just recovering from recent flooding, extremely heavy has fallen overnight and throughout today on the eastern edge of the system.

Between 9am and 5pm today, the Bureau had recorded a further 14mm at Kowanyama in the Gulf, on top of the 70mm it received overnight; on the coast Townsville as received 34mm on top of 125mm overnight; The Woolshed has received 118mm today; Mackay 75mm scored today on top of 38mm overnight; and Rockhampton has received 43mm today, on top of 70mm overnight.

The rain has only been light so far in the west, with Emerald and Clermont only receiving 10mm between 9am and 5pm.

Townsville has reportedly been affected by flash flooding, while several roads are cut around Rockhampton.

But according to The Weather Company, the rain will be limited to the so-called Sunshine State.

It says cloud over the interior is causing just a little rain, and patchy cloud over the south and southeast of Australia is expected to bring virtually no rain due to a high pressure ridge.

SOURCE: FarmOnline.