Large parts of Queensland can expect "high impact weather" this week, with intense rainfall, destructive wind gusts and giant hail forecast.
A significant weather system will move into western and central Queensland from Tuesday, bringing severe storm activity for parts of the channel country.
The trough is then expected to expand and push east from Wednesday, with parts of the northern and southern interior expected to have rainfall totals of between 50 and 100 millimetres by the end of the week.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Felim Hanniffy said the storms would be widespread.
"By Thursday, [there will be] an extensive area of potentially severe thunderstorms, about much of the east and in the north-east as well.
"We'll see storms extending right up into parts of the peninsula and north-east tropics during the second half of the week.
"Some of that [50 to 100mm] could fall in a very short duration … you're talking about an hour or two."
With moderate flood warnings in place for the Bulloo and Paroo rivers in western Queensland, Mr Hanniffy said the prospect of more rain could bring floods to the area.
"That will be the main concern, given the catchments are very saturated and very responsive," he said.
"It depends on just how many storms you get across the area, but the model is certainly bulls-eyeing those south-western and particularly the southern tier catchments."
Farmer concern
The wet forecast is causing headaches for growers in central and southern Queensland, where large winter crops need harvesting.
Australia is on track to harvest a near-record 61.9 million tonnes of winter grains, according to Rabobank's 2022–23 Australian winter crop forecast.
That's the case for Rob Hemming's Dirranbandi property, where the winter crops are the best he has seen in 34 years.
But with more rain on the horizon, he said being prepared for the challenges of a wet harvest was necessary.
"It's a really good prospect, and we're sort of on a knife edge," Mr Hemming said.
"All we can do is just get the roads as good as we can so we can get trucks in and out of the paddocks. We've prepared ourselves with a lot of on-farm storage for the grain, just in case we can't get it into the local depot.
"In this boom-and-bust country, it's good to go boom when it booms."
Further north, Biloela grain and herb grower Richard Fairley knows only too well the damage hail can cause his basil and oregano crops currently in the ground.
He said the forecast had him concerned about the crop
"It can tolerate rain, but this time last year, we lost it all to hail," Mr Fairley said.
"And reading the weather reports of large hail in the area being forecasted, it makes you extremely nervous.
"We're fine at the moment, but we're still three weeks from the first of the basil harvest."
As for his wheat, Mr Fairley said it was ready for harvest as soon as his harvester returned from a friend's farm.
"The intensity of the storms are going to be hard, and fast and you just have to hope and pray you're not under them," he said.
"Just because the yields are good, the weather gods don't switch the rain off so you can get it off."
