The tropical storm that has caused widespread flooding across far north Queensland is heading south, but is expected to ease before it hits Brisbane, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Parts of Queensland’s north-west were hit with more than 500mm of rain in the 48 hours to Thursday morning, the BoM information specialist Danny Teece-Johnson said.
“Up around Mount Isa they’ve had big falls in the last 48 hours, around the Lower Gulf Central region,” Teece-Johnson said.
“At Century Mine, up near the NT border, they’ve had about 500mm in two days. There’s lots of flooding up around that region. But as it’s coming down, it’s weakening.”
Teece-Johnson said the low-pressure system was slowly making its way down the state but would only bring rain with it, the heaviest of which would probably fall in the Lockyer Valley.
“For the south-east, the forecast isn’t severe, just widespread rainfall,” Teece-Johnson said.
“We’re expecting 20-40 mills around the south-east coast on Saturday and 10-20 potentially on Sunday – and that’s at the higher end. It’s weakening – there’s a possibility of thunderstorms, however, it’s looking like just showers.”
The state’s north-west had endured a heavy monsoon season which had resulted in significant floods, with several remote communities in the Gulf of Carpentaria isolated by flood water for the last three months.
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service had been flying in essential supplies to the community of Doomadgee and Mornington Island.
“Essential supplies for the stranded community of Doomadgee landed from Cairns with heavy rain continuing to fall over saturated north-west Queensland,” the QFES said on Twitter on Thursday.
“More resupplies are planned for Doomadgee and Mornington this week with flood water cutting off communities in the region.”
Teece-Johnson said the storm would be welcome news for some across the Darling Downs, west of Brisbane, who had been experiencing the driest summer since 1900.
“We’ll get some rainfall in Darling Downs, which is good news. In the northern downs they’ve been fighting fires there for months,” he said.
The weather system was expected to hang around the weekend, dissipating on Sunday before moving offshore.
“The breeze behind it will push it off to the coast early next week,” he said.
