Queensland Deluge: Heavy Rain, Flooding Persist

Let's start, though, by taking a look at our radar imagery from the last 12 hours or so. Plenty of showers and thunderstorms still occurring across those northern parts of Queensland, mostly about the north tropical coast. It is worth noting, however, that we've seen quite a bit of clearer air, drier air moving across the north-west, with that risk of heavy falls really easing as this low pressure trough starts to pull northwards.

Now, our heaviest rainfall that we've seen in the 24 hours to 9:00 Monday morning was really focused between Cairns and Townsville. Widespread falls of 50 to 100 mm pushing inland across the northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders as well. The heavy falls were seen between Townsville and Rollingstone, with 100 to 200 mm seen broadly in the gauges, over 200 mm in some spots.

Taking a look at how the rain will play out for the rest of today and into tomorrow, we are likely to continue to see widespread showers with the risk of heavy falls across parts of the north-east coast today. It'll be mainly focused between Port Douglas and Ayr, certainly including that area around Townsville.

As we move through the later part of today into tomorrow, we're likely to see this low pressure trough moving northwards, pushing across the Cape York Peninsula. That means we are likely to see showers and storms become a little bit more scattered, a little bit less frequent across the north-east tropical coast, and that immediate risk of heavy falls starting to ease back. At the same time, we will continue to see much more isolated showers continuing across the north-west of the state as well.

However, even in these places where the rain might start to ease off, we will continue to see riverine flooding. Our flood warnings, current at 10:00 on Monday morning, show widespread minor to major flooding across those western and northern parts of Queensland. We can see that some of those minor flood warnings actually push all the way towards the north-east coast as well.

In particular, though, we're focusing on our areas of major flooding at the moment. That includes the Flinders River and the Western River. We are currently seeing major flooding occurring on the Flinders River at Richmond and Walker's Bend, and on the Western River at Winton. We may also see possible further rises with the arrival of upstream flows.

As we move into Wednesday and Thursday we are likely to see monsoonal flow strengthening across far northern Queensland. We can see that as our monsoon trough, this dot-dash-dot line on our map, starts to return. It's going to draw in significant moisture and feed it into the risk of heavy falls across those far northern parts of Queensland through the later part of this week, so from Wednesday into Thursday in particular, but continuing into Friday as well.

Of course, we may continue to see those showers and risk of locally heavy falls pushing down the north-east tropical coast too, but the focus is really going to be around this monsoonal trough further north.

Now we can see this if we take a look at our rainfall totals from midnight last night, all the way out to 11:00 on Friday. As you can see, widespread rainfall accumulations of 100 to 150 mm or more are expected over the next few days across those far northern parts of Queensland. They could push down that coast towards Townsville as well, but for once they are much less likely across the north-western and northern interior of the state.

Now, as always at this time, there are a few key impacts we need to keep in mind. Firstly, the risk of flash flooding with those heavy falls could threaten property and even life, depending on where they occur and how quickly that rain comes down. We are likely to see further road closures and continued community isolation where the riverine flooding is at its worst. And of course, we will continue to see agricultural impacts and a risk to livestock continuing as those cool, wet conditions persist in some parts.

As this situation continues with that rain shifting north, it is essential to stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings via the Bureau's website, the BOM Weather app and via our social media. Stay safe and we'll catch you next time.