Storm activity moving across the north of the nation.
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00:00Hello from the Bureau, it is Thursday the 12th of December, another day, another night,
00:05another risk of potential heavy rain, flooding and thunderstorms across the Queensland coast.
00:10We'll start by looking at the radar imagery from this morning, just ignore a few little
00:13glitches out here over the water, instead focusing on these cells which have been on
00:17and near the Queensland coast last night, overnight and this morning.
00:21There was one very heavy cell that went through Cairns, brought an incredible 109mm of rain
00:27in an hour to the airport there, with some significant weather also impacting Townsville,
00:32Innisfail and Mackay.
00:33A little further south the weather has cleared up, it's really the central coast and the
00:37northeast coast where our focus lies at the moment and that will continue through the
00:41rest of the day Thursday and into Friday.
00:44In particular through Thursday afternoon, keep your eye on this dashed blue line, that's
00:47a coastal trough which gets very close to the Whitsundays and potentially tonight or
00:52overnight, could push onshore, somewhere near the Mackay central coast area.
00:58If that trough does tilt onshore it will likely amplify potential rain in that region leading
01:04to heavy falls and possible flooding.
01:07Overnight tonight and through Friday morning.
01:10Here's a look at accumulated rainfall so we can get an idea of which places may see the
01:13most significant wet weather and perhaps we'll zoom in a little bit.
01:17It's hard to say with precision at this stage who will get the most rain but the current
01:21best forecast suggests the heaviest falls likely to be between Mackay and Townsville
01:26with Bowen potentially being one of those areas that could be in the firing line for
01:30heavy accumulations.
01:32The top of the scale on this map goes to 150mm of rain and over the next 24 hours we could
01:38certainly see that much or more if this coastal trough pushes onshore, over 200mm with isolated
01:44areas being significantly higher are not out of the question.
01:48These significant rainfall accumulations are not just at the coastline either, we can
01:52also see some quite large accumulations pushing inland to parts of the central and northern
01:57highlands of interior Queensland.
02:00Some of the most significant weather impacts that come with heavy rain such as this absolutely
02:04do include flooding, flooding of homes, properties, parks and pathways, all a possibility there.
02:11If we get water over roads that can lead to dangerous driving conditions, road closures
02:15and long detours, potential isolation in the worst case scenario and we may see damage
02:20to infrastructure like power outages and possible problems with drainage.
02:25A look ahead to the weekend will show that the trough moves back offshore but it's still
02:29close to the Queensland coast.
02:31That will mean further showers and storms over the water and at times those further
02:36showers and storms will touch central and northern parts of the Queensland coast as
02:39well, although at this stage any further wet weather through Saturday and Sunday does not
02:44look to be anywhere near as heavy as the potential rain coming in overnight tonight.
02:50So if you are on the central coast or the northeast coast of Queensland, throughout
02:53the next 24 hours do keep a close eye on your weather forecast and any potential weather
02:57warnings or thunderstorm warnings for your area as it could indeed get very very wet.
03:02All that information will be available on the Bureau website and app.
03:05Thanks for watching and stay safe.