La Niña likely to drench Wide Bay again in 2022

Experts say the La Niña weather pattern is likely to bring another drenching as early as September 2022. Read what the return of La Nina means for Gympie, the Fraser Coast and Bundaberg:

The Wide Bay is on high alert for a third consecutive La Niña year - a rare occurrence that has only happened three times in 120 years.

While other countries, including the United States, have acknowledged the weather pattern’s return, the Bureau of Meteorology is yet to confirm it for Australia.

Despite this, the World Meteorology Organisation said on Wednesday there was a 70 per cent chance of the climate driver’s return.

The warning comes after the BOM updated its “La Niña watch” to a “La Niña alert” in August 2022.

Across the Wide Bay, repeat flooding in 2022 has significantly increased the risk of further damage, according to BOM duty forecaster Brooke Pagel.

“The wet soils are going to be the main risk, along with the already full dams and the high rivers,” she said.

“With the above average rainfall, that does elevate the flood risk for the Wide Bay, including the Mary River and the Burnett River.”

She said at this stage the outlook was in favour of a wetter than average spring and summer.

The Bureau of Meteorology says there is an 80 per cent chance that higher than average rainfall will hit the Wide Bay this spring. Picture: BOM.

University of the Sunshine Coast flood historian Dr Margaret Cook has warned that failure to prepare for wet and wild conditions could be devastating for communities across the Wide Bay.

She said learning from previous weather events, including the floods earlier in 2022 could help residents to better prepare themselves.

“Expect rain. Lots of rain. And take advantage of warnings to start preparing now,” Dr Cook said.

“As a community we could be mobilising volunteers to help prepare. We need a flood army beforehand, rather than relying on the mud army afterwards to clean up the mess.”

She said while back-to-back flooding could be devastating, there was a silver lining.

“Many households are still reeling from floods earlier this year; the clean-up continues with many houses unrepaired,” Dr Cook said.

“History has shown that we’re very good at recovery ... the community always rallies and helps people.”

“The one advantage of us having been given so much warning is that we have time up our sleeves.”