Summer resurgence: Heatwaves, cyclones, storms and flooding all in one week
Queensland is set to experience summer’s full fury in the coming days, with heatwaves, cyclones, storms and flooding all forecast in the span of a week. See the forecast.
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Queensland is set to experience a summer resurgence, with heatwaves, cyclones, storms and flooding all expected in the span of a week.
Parts of the South East, Warrego, Maranoa, Channel Country and Capricornia sweltered through a severe heatwave on Sunday, with Roma hitting 41.4C, Birdsville 40.1C, and Brisbane recorded its hottest day this year, reaching 35.7C.
‘EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY’: BUSHFIRES ERUPT ACROSS QLD
Bureau Senior Meteorologist Harry Clark said the above average temperatures were in part due to wind changes caused by ex-tropical cyclone Gabrielle, which has now passed Norfolk Island and heading towards New Zealand.
“When tropical cyclone Gabrielle moved off to the southeast, it left our sort of wind field to be more of a south-westerly, which is a bit of an unusual direction for this time of year,” he said.
“So what that does is it does drags all that hot air from the interior towards the coast, and that’s why we’re seeing this temperature spike today for much of southern central Queensland.”
Brisbane Mum Kerryll Burgess and her daughter 7-year-old Ashlee, were part of the many hundreds who made their way to Streets Beach in Southbank to escape the heat on Sunday.
“It was quite hot, so we went on a bit of an adventure and caught the train to South Brisbane and walked towards to lagoon to go for a swim” she said.
“It was packed, it was very hard to get a space to put your stuff in the shade, there would have been a couple of hundred of people there.”
As ex-cyclone Gabrielle continues to move South, the Bureau have issued a hazardous surf warning for the Fraser Island Coast, Sunshine Coast Waters and Gold Coast Waters until Monday 13 February.
“Generally we’re seeing waves solidly around a two to three metre mark,” Mr Clark said.
“The highest wave is to be around five, six meters so far at the offshore buoys, so the surf is likely to remain hazardous until at least early next week, so roughly Tuesday at this point.”
The Bureau said surf and swell conditions are expected to be hazardous for coastal activities such as rock fishing, boating, and swimming in these areas.
Following the weekend’s heatwave, parts of South East Queensland are set to be hit with severe thunderstorms early in the week, with potential flash flooding and large hail.
“On Tuesday we do have potential for severe thunderstorms through Southeast in Queensland,” Mr Clark said.
“With that, we do once again see the risk of flash flooding if we do get pockets of heavy rainfall associated with that, and couldn’t roll out some damaging winds and large hail as well”.
Far North Queensland and the Gulf region are also expected to be in the firing line of a potential cyclone, with flood warnings already in place in the region, including Albert, Nicholson, Gregory and Leichhardt Rivers,
“We’re continuing to monitor a tropical low in the northwestern Gulf of Carpentaria that islands that low does have a moderate chance of developing into a tropical cyclone from Tuesday,” Mr Clark said.
“We do have a moderate chance, which is a 20 to 50 per cent chance of that low developing into a tropical cyclone on Tuesday, that’s significant
“We are seeing active monsoon conditions continue across the peninsula at the moment, so we do have a flood watch current for virtually all catchments across Cape York Peninsula and parts of the Gulf country.”
Mr Clark also warned that more hot days could be yet to come, as high temperatures are expected to return after a few days of reprieve.
“We could see this (warmer weather) being here once again next weekend,” he said.
“Being summer, certainly there is easy potential for temperatures to spike up, all it takes is that wind direction to turn around for the north northwest or even Southwest,
“But certainly at this point, we’ve probably got five days or so of cooler weather until we get there and temperature forecast at that time can change a little bit”.
‘Incredibly rare’ triple cyclone threat off Qld increases, 300mm falls possible
Three tropical lows could form off north Queensland from as early as Wednesday night with all posing the threat of developing into cyclones.
Cyclone watch: Monster low threatens to form, track south
Queensland’s first cyclone of the season could form off the far north at the weekend, while a separate severe weather system has hammered parts of the region with heavy rain overnight.