An unusually slow-moving climate system has dragged monsoonal rain from tropical north Queensland to the state’s south-western outback, already dumping a 12 months’s price of rain in locations in a matter of days – with the promise of extra to come back.
So widespread is the deluge that, by Sunday, all the sunshine state was anticipated to be sodden with greater than 100mm of rain, Dean Narramore, senior meteorologist on the Bureau of Meteorology mentioned on Tuesday morning.
Folks within the deserts and channel nation of the far south-west could possibly be remoted for days, Narramore mentioned, as flood waters take weeks to circulation into Lake Eyre and north-east South Australia.
“Basically, anywhere inland of the ranges in Queensland, and also around the north tropical coast, is either in a flood watch or a flood warning,” Narramore mentioned. “And the forecast over coming days is rainfall will continue”.
The final three or 4 days introduced widespread rainfalls to cities spanning central, western and southern Queensland, together with Birdsville (126mm), Windorah (171mm), Quilpie (200mm), across the Winton space (120mm), Mount Isa (about 100mm) and Urandangi (135mm), Narramore mentioned.
“Pretty much everyone from Mount Isa to Cloncurry, Hughenden and all the way down to the New South Wales and the South Australian border has had 100mm to 200mm,” he mentioned.
To place these totals in perspective, Narramore mentioned the common annual rainfall, significantly within the far south-west, was between about 180mm and 300mm.
“So many places have had three, six and even up to nine months’ worth of rainfall – and that’s only at our official gauges,” he mentioned. “There’s a number of property owners out there that have recorded falls in excess of 200mm over the last few days … the isolated high falls out there could easily see some places with nine to even 12 months’ worth of rainfall already.
“We’ve already seen pictures of what looks like inland lakes forming”.
Narramore mentioned the system was transferring slowly east daily. Far-western Queensland may see one other 25mm to 50mm, with remoted falls of as much as 100mm, whereas farther inland, locations Hughenden, Longreach and Charleville may see one other 100mm to 200mm over the subsequent three or 4 days.
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“That rain eventually will get towards eastern Queensland, where we could see another 100mm to 150 mm there, but probably not until the weekend,” Narramore mentioned.
“Not the big falls we’ve seen inland, but definitely the soaking rainfall might even extend towards the east coast – so … by the end of the week, the entire state of Queensland is probably going to experience up and over 100mm of rain”.
The forecaster mentioned the rain was brought on by an higher low stress system coming from the Northern Territory and dragging “all that monsoonal moisture” from the Prime Finish.
“All that monsoonal moisture is being fed into this very slow moving low pressure system over south west Queensland, which is driving days of rain, flooding and storms,” he mentioned.
“Normally we might see this for a day or two, but the prolonged nature of this system is the unusual side of it”.
