BOM says rain and flooding to continue in north Queensland through the weekend.
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00:00Heavy rain and flooding have been impacting the north tropical Queensland coast throughout
00:05the week so far and there is a lot more rain on the way for this saturated part of the
00:09country.
00:10Let's get into it with a severe weather update for Thursday, starting by seeing our radar
00:15imagery from this morning.
00:16Now so far through the week the heaviest falls have been between Cairns and Townsville, and
00:20we've actually seen the rain ease off there so far through Thursday, but at the same time
00:25the rain has coalesced a little bit further south.
00:28However, through the week so far the rainfall numbers have been fairly remarkable.
00:31I'll just bring up a couple of the highest observations from the week so far.
00:36Up to 939mm in 7 days at Mount Sophia, that's just south of Cairns, as is Clyde Road, 900mm
00:44there with over 600mm in other locations.
00:48That is a lot of rain, it has caused significant flooding, road closures, detours and damage,
00:54with more on the way.
00:55We'll just go back to the radar imagery and what we'll see, not as much rain here but
00:59a little bit more rain further southwards and that becomes the focal point for Thursday
01:03as rain gets heavier over the Whitsundays and the Burdekin region, around the likes
01:08of Proserpine and Bowen, north of Mackay.
01:11We could see some significant falls there through the remainder of the day on Thursday
01:15because this low which has been generating the rain is just moving a little bit to the
01:18south and it is on the southern flank of that low where we see the heaviest falls.
01:23So watching out for northern parts of the central coast, southern parts of the Herbert
01:27and Lower Burdekin for seeing the heaviest falls today and we could easily see another
01:311-200mm for that stretch of coastline there.
01:35Remember this was the area which has seen the heavier falls so far, not as much today,
01:39perhaps another 30-60mm of rain.
01:42The falls in the south between Townsville and Mackay could be enhanced by embedded thunderstorms.
01:49Storms are possible through all of these northern areas but the yellow region here is where
01:52we could see severe thunderstorms and if we do see severe thunderstorms they are likely
01:56to be severe because of the heavy rain that they are generating through the day on Thursday.
02:03We're going to jump ahead for the next few days now and this is where things get really
02:06interesting because there are not one, not two, but three tropical low pressure areas
02:11in the vicinity of North Queensland through Friday and the weekend and depending on the
02:16movement of these lows it's going to shift the wind and shift the areas of heavy rain
02:21and so that's going to determine who in North Queensland gets the heaviest falls in the
02:25coming few days but let's play it out as to what is looking most likely at the current
02:29time period.
02:30This low will move northwards again which will shift that band of heavier rain northwards
02:34again through Friday back into that area between Cairns and Townsville and then throughout
02:39the course of the weekend that's going to become slow moving, continuing to pump a lot
02:44of wet weather onto that part of the coastline.
02:47Meanwhile we could see development up in the Gulf of Carpentaria as well, bringing
02:50some rain into Gulf Country over here.
02:53The rainfall totals through the weekend are expected to get heavy once again through this
02:57stretch of coast here.
02:58We're actually at the top of the scale, 300mm plus in this darker area and that could easily
03:03be 500mm for isolated locations on top of the rain that they've already received earlier
03:09this week.
03:10That's a whole lot more wet weather and that means we expect to see a whole lot more heavy
03:13rain impacts, a lot more flooding, potential road closures and detours and isolation, stress
03:19on the power network and other infrastructure through north east Queensland, and damage
03:23to crops, vegetation and gardens is definitely possible, particularly in areas where we do
03:29see surface flooding like this.
03:32Finally a look at the river network across this part of Australia.
03:35There are a couple of minor flood warnings in play, we've actually seen the river levels
03:39come down a bit today after the heavy falls from the last few days.
03:43The Mulgrave River and the Tully River still seeing minor flooding at the moment and the
03:47blue areas are flood watches and that's covering pretty much all of the rivers between Cairns
03:52and Townsville for the next few days.
03:55So if you are in this part of the country, it is very important to stay up to date with
03:58the latest weather forecasts and weather warnings and follow any advice from your local authorities
04:02and emergency management.
04:04Thanks very much for watching.