Heavy Rain Hits Central, Northern Qld

It's Angus here at the Bureau for what

will surely be our final severe weather video of 2025.

It is the last day of the year, the 31st of December, and rain continues

to hammer down over parts of northern and western Queensland.

It has been going on for most of the last week,

and the wet weather is showing no signs of slowing down.

We can see on our radar and our satellite,

there's been areas of rain right along this dashed trough line

leading into this low pressure system through last night and this morning.

And the main message is the rain is falling on places

that have already received a whole lot of wet weather.

And the anticipation is there will be more wet weather through the rest of the day

today and into the first couple of days of January,

the first couple of days of the new year.

So there are still warnings in place for both the north tropical coast

and for central parts of the state

and we'll touch on this warning first.

Maybe zoom and have a look.

See which areas are likely to be covered by that warning area over central parts.

So it covers parts of the central west and the north-west.

It is mostly north of Longreach, South of Hughenden

does include Winton out towards Mount Isa, but doesn't reach Mount Isa.

In this yellow area, we expect to see six hour

rainfall totals in this 40 to 100mm range.

Now that's a pretty big range.

Most of the rain will probably be in the 40 to 70 millimetre range,

but can't rule out a few higher falls up to 100mm.

That's through the remainder of the day today

and into the first part of the day tomorrow as well.

A second warning area is in place across the north tropical coast, extending

from just south of Cairns down to around Townsville, could see heavier falls here.

Now this is a wetter part of the country.

It is a wetter climate, so it's not unusual to see heavier falls here.

But we could well see six hour rainfall totals between 100 and 180mm.

Some areas could see a further 200mm in six hour periods.

So a lot of rainfall through this area, on top of all the wet weather

that has already fallen.

Now, given that the rain has been falling steadily for most of the last week,

there are a number of flood warnings in place

across central and north- eastern parts of Queensland.

This ridge region here through the middle, that is a major flood warning

that is in place for the Flinders River, and that is surrounded

by moderate flood warnings for a number of other rivers,

including the Norman River, the Cloncurry River, the Georgina River

and the Western River over central and western parts of Queensland

and getting across into parts of the Territory as well.

We also have some minor flood warnings showing in green

across the north tropical coast from Cairns down to Townsville.

I'm putting on the next several days of rainfall data here, just to highlight

the message that this rain is going nowhere and is going to hang in place

because this low pressure area, this dashed trough

line, don't really move very far between now and the weekend.

We've pushed out now

to Saturday night, still raining across most of central and northern Queensland.

Now potentially we might see the intensities of rain drop.

It might not be as heavy in any given hour or six hour period as it has been,

but it will continue to be persistent and widespread.

So lots of rain across the top here, bringing our 5 to 7 day rainfall

totals over western and central Queensland to 300 to 600mm.

Now, for some places, that represents a year's worth of rainfall in one week.

That is what we're looking at with this persistent ongoing rainfall,

we will likely see even heavier falls

across the north tropical coast between 500 and 1000mm.

That is one metre of rain in a week.

Now, that is not quite

an average annual rainfall, but it is still a whole lot of wet weather.

And with all this rain coming on, there will continue

to be some pretty significant weather impacts.

Flooding is obviously number one front and centre.

The prime impact that we anticipate from this heavy rainfall, that flooding

can bring a threat to property and life, where it gets most extreme

and most severe.

A lot of this rain will fall onto roads,

causing road closures and potentially isolating entire communities.

And there's the risk of water and infrastructure issues, as this rain

does continue to pile in across northern and central parts of Queensland.

So do stay up to date with the latest weather and

warning information and follow all advice from local emergency services.

Have a safe end to the year. Thanks for watching.