Qld weather: State braces for wild wet season

The state’s wet season is expected to come early this year with a monsoon trough set to drench Queensland as early as next week.

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Queensland’s wet season is just around the corner, with emergency teams preparing for the possibility of wild weather set to kick off as early as next week.

Rain is expected to hit from next week onwards according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest outlook, which has predicted a 75 per cent chance of totals hitting up to 50mm for the south east coast over the next fortnight.

For the remainder of the season, there will be a 75 per cent chance that rain along the coast will hit totals of more than 400mm from December to February, with the chance of a drenching in north Queensland of more than 800mm in three months.

It comes as director of SES operations Glenn Alderton said teams were continuing “business as usual” ahead of an early start to the wet season.

“The Bureau has suggested this year will likely be wetter than normal, and the monsoon trough might arrive a bit earlier than normal so we’re expecting that will start impacting the state from next week onwards,” he said.

“We just maintain our readiness and that involves recruiting new volunteers and training them up with the functions they need to provide the best service to Queenslanders.”

Mr Alderton said teams were watching advice from the Bureau going forward amid early indications that the monsoon trough is set to arrive within the next week or so.

“We’re keeping an eye on it, and as it develops more, we might start to move some resources around where needed.”

With just 5000 volunteers statewide, Mr Alderton said now was the time for the community to get to know their surroundings and their neighbours, as well as clear out their gutters and prepare their emergency kit.

“As ready as we are, it doesn’t matter if the community isn’t ready,” he said.

“The community members themselves are the most important link in the whole thing.”

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the council had “wasted no time” in making sure the city was prepared for the third season of La Nina.

The east coast is expected to experience a wetter than usual summer. Picture: Bureau of Meteorology

From September, the council has organised to give away more than 53,000 sandbags to residents while also staging free green waste weekends, launching new flood maps and rolling out automated warning signs.

“All this work has occurred while we undertake Brisbane’s biggest-ever rebuild, with massive investment in roads, parks and playgrounds and drainage occurring right across the city to improve our resilience,” Mr Schrinner said.

Recovery processes are still ongoing following the 2020-21 floods last year with the estimated total economic and social bill hitting $7.7bn, according to Deloitte.

The state saw nine separate disaster events last season that affected 66 out of the state’s 77 local government areas.

Queensland Reconstruction Authority acting CEO Jimmy Scott said the state had “well-established and mature” recovery arrangements to prepare for the upcoming season.

As part of this, in September, the state government launched the Queensland Strategy for Disaster Resilience 2022-2027 to promote more resilient communities

“When a disaster hits, the QRA administers the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, and has strong relationships with councils, Queensland departmental agencies, and the Australian government to provide assistance quickly to support the recovery and resilience of impacted Queensland communities,” he said.