Almost 280 millimetres of rain fell over parts of north Queensland in just three hours last night in an intense downpour brought by a monsoonal trough.
The heaviest of the falls arrived about 8:00pm and State Emergency Service volunteers worked into the night responding to sand-bagging and roof-tarping requests, with two people needing to be rescued.
Their car became stranded when they drove into fast-moving water at Deeragun, in Townsville's west.
It took crews nearly 30 minutes to rescue the pair, who escaped without injury.
The highest total recorded was 381 millimetres at Stony Creek, in Townsville's west, including 277mm that fell in just three hours.
The Bureau of Meteorology said more than 200mm of rain have fallen in parts of the Bohle Catchment since 9:00am yesterday.
A moderate flood warning has been issued for local catchments and further downpours are expected today.
Senior forecaster Grace Legge said the intensity of the rain in such a short period of time was unusual.
More rain on the way
Senior meteorologist Harry Clark said the monsoonal system was "by no means over".
"We are expecting to see further heavy rainfall, particularly [in the] Bowen up to the Cardwell area, over the next 24 hours and it will continue in north-western Queensland as well," Mr Clark said.
"So for the next 24 hours, that Townsville area has the risk of seeing some heavy falls anywhere from 50 to 150 millimetres in question.
"Further west, Charters Towers all the way out to Mount Isa could see anywhere [between] 20 to 50 millimetres and even isolated places seeing 100 millimetres."
Mr Clark said the system would slowly shift north on Saturday.
"It'll probably start to affect some areas around Innisfail, and even getting towards the Cairns area, but it will weaken as it does so," Mr Clark said.
"Generally, we could see 100-200 millimetres in some places, but they typically cope with that sort of level of rainfall quite comfortably up there."
Severe thunderstorms are also possible in the state's north-west and south-west for the next few days as deep tropical moisture draws across Queensland due to the monsoon trough.
Minor and moderate flood warnings continue across the North Tropical Coast and Central Coast regions, and broadly across western, central, and southern districts.
A "flood watch" has been issued for Western Queensland and Central Gulf Country Catchments along with coastal areas between Clump Point and Bowen.
Council surprised by severity or rain
Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said the pace and intensity of the rain overnight surprised authorities.
"I don't think the weather bureau really understood what was happening here," she said.
"We all have memories of what happened in 2019 when a similar system got trapped over the Townsville region, heading out west."
Ms Hill said 190 staff are off due to COVID and council was still working through the aftermath of the rain.
She said some traffic cameras have broken and they were waiting for information from Magnetic Island about how their drainage worked in the deluge.
