Heavy Rain Triggers Flooding in Parts of Qld

Overnight and this morning, we saw widespread heavy rainfall on that central coast and into the Central Highlands and coalfields overnight, where we saw widespread falls of 100 mm to 200 mm in this area, from not only inland of Mackay, around the Clarke Range area, but also down through Sarina, Saint Lawrence.

And then extending well inland as well, places like Moranbah had over 150 mm, Clermont 200 mm, and around Emerald 80 mm to 100 mm as well, and everywhere in between.

And that rainfall overnight and this morning has led to flash and riverine flooding, and further rainfall is likely to cause even more flooding.

And that's why a Severe Weather Warning is current for much of the Central Coast and extending well inland to the Central Highlands and coalfields, Capricornia and eastern parts of the Central West District.

Now what this means, if you live in this highlighted area or know someone that does, forecast rainfall of 50 mm to 150 mm, with isolated falls even higher than that, will lead to further flash and riverine flooding and possible rapid river rises, particularly on creeks and streams that are already flooded, like we're seeing through parts of the Central Highlands and coalfields right now.

But let's have a look at all of that in more detail, where you can see.

Here's the Tropical Low continuing to move to the west. But all that rainfall is well south of the low's movement, particularly through Central Highlands, coalfields, Capricornia.

We're even getting rain down into south-eastern parts of Queensland as well, and that is going to continue today and into tonight.

And then tomorrow we get a bit of a break in the early morning hours, but heavy rainfall still through the Capricorni, coalfields.

And then widespread rain and storms will develop again on Tuesday and again on Wednesday through much of central, eastern and northern Queensland.

And then that threat area, as you can see, moves into north-west Queensland.

Now, good news for our residents and communities still recovering and having ongoing flooding from that heavy rainfall that we saw around the New Year period.

And unfortunately, we're going to see another rain event through the middle and latter part of this week, with rain and storms continuing right across inland, central and eastern parts of Queensland, with it probably staying fairly dry through far southern areas of the state.

So let's look at all of that in more detail in terms of rainfall.

So we can see widespread falls of 50 mm to 100 mm extending near and well south of the path of the Tropical Low as the Tropical Low moves towards the north-west.

But the heaviest falls likely to be in parts of the Central West, Highlands and coalfields, and the Capricornia Coast, where you can see here we're likely to see widespread falls of 100 mm to 200 mm on top of what has already fallen.

And that is going to lead to widespread flash and riverine flooding there.

And another 50 mm to 100 mm on our flood-affected areas in north-west Queensland also poses a risk to roads, community and livestock, particularly with moderate and Major Flood Warnings still ongoing there.

Now, talking about warnings, there are a number of warnings current across much of the state.

Firstly, we'll look at the Flood Watches that are current in these purple areas.

Now they extend all the way down into far northern south-east Queensland.

We're talking about the Wide Bay-Burnett area, where we could see some heavy falls down there, but nothing like what we're seeing further north.

And then those Flood Watches extend all the way through inland and then north-west Queensland as well, in anticipation of that heavy rainfall that is going to fall later this week.

The rainfall that's already occurred is causing some major flooding on the Connors and Isaac Rivers, on the Mackenzie River.

We're seeing minor flooding on the Fitzroy River, moderate on the Thomson River, and also moderate flooding on the Suttor River upstream of Burdekin Dam Falls.

And many of our Flood Warnings are still ongoing on the Flinders, Georgina and the Norman River in north-western Queensland.

And with all that rainfall continuing as well, we're going to see multiple impacts as well.

So today we could see threat to inundation of homes and properties where some of those heaviest falls occur.

And when we get those torrential rainfall and rapid river rises, that could also pose a threat to life.

So please be careful if you're out and about, on the road to the Central Highlands and coalfields today.

Widespread road closures across the state, and we could see homes, properties and businesses isolated, particularly through inland areas, as further rainfall later this week will lead to renewed flooding.

And we also could see quite a few agricultural impacts as well, and that's going to be a risk to livestock.

They've already had those big impacts earlier this year.

So with all this rain, storm and flooding ongoing through much of Queensland this week, make sure you stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings via our website, app and social media.

Listen to all advice from emergency services, and we'll continue to keep you updated here at the Bureau.