Lightning storm shakes Townsville awake
Townsville has woken up with a bang thanks to an electrifying storm that caused brief power outages and lightning strikes across the city. Here’s what we know
Townsville has woken up with a bang thanks to an electrifying storm that caused brief power outages and lightning strikes across the city.
The rain started gently at 5am on Wednesday morning, and extremely dark clouds were spotted behind Mount Stuart by early starters, before it turned into intense rainfall after 6.10am.
At 7.29am the BOM issued a severe thunderstorm warning for heavy rainfall.
“Slow moving thunderstorms have formed this morning around Townsville and bring the risk of some localised heavy falls over the next hour or two,” the BOM stated.
The warning was cancelled at 8.38am.
However, an extreme heatwave warning remains in place for the North Queensland region.
Hourly rainfall data from the BOM paints a picture of where the rain came from, with western locations like Calcium and Mingela picking up 10mm each between 6am and 7am.
Once 7am arrived the rain was hitting outer Townsville hard - 40mm in Cluden and 49mm at Stuart Creek.
Between 7am and 8am the highest hourly rainfalls were seen in Alligator Creek (52mm) and South Townsville (62mm).
Lightning strikes delivered plenty of ‘wow’ moments as well, and lightning tracking data tells us there have been nearly 50 recorded lightning strikes inside the town limits.
Hardest hit was the Alice River, Kelso and Oak Valley areas on the outskirts of suburbia where the storm seemed to let loose as it climbed over Mount Stuart and Hervey Range.
A few lightning strikes were captured within metres of homes - including one outside the Townsville Carry Company’s depot on Shaw Rd, another right on the Ross River near Marabou Dr, a strike on Pinnacle View Turf Farm in Kelso, one near Tilly St in Alice River in the Mount Margaret Estate, and one strike near Cope St in Stuart.
Where did it come from?
The earliest rain data visible this morning was at the Brabons weather station, behind Kelso, which recorded 2mm between 2am and 3am.
Weather mapping also shows the storm building up inland of Townsville and moving east as the sun rose.
Yesterday there was signficant rainfall both in the Gulf and near Collinsville, proving that a lot of moisture is starting to move around back there.
Is there more coming?
It seems the morning storm took the BOM by surprise, considering at 7am they were still predicting Townsville would receive “a possible shower and 0-10mm” for the day.
The BOM is predicting a “shower or two” with minimal rain for the rest of the week, switching to cloudy weather on Monday.
Rainfall maps also tell us rain is expected to linger in the Gulf - possibly throwing another wild inland storm our way.
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Originally published as Lightning storm shakes Townsville awake
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