Townsville weather: Storm, rain forecast to lash North Queensland

Townsville and other parts of North Queensland can expect rainfall totals as high as 50mm in the coming days, the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting.

Bailey Wilson at the Townsville Sailing Club in this file photo. BOM meteorologist Pieter Claassen confirmed on Tuesday that rain clouds would likely gather over Townsville from about Wednesday with a storm and heavy rainfall expected on Thursday. Picture: Evan Morgan

Townsville and other parts of North Queensland can expect rainfall totals as high as 50mm in the coming days, the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting.

Despite the rainfall expected to peak with thunderstorms in Townsville on Thursday and persist through the weekend, BOM is not predicting an early start to the Wet Season in what is good news for the North Queensland sugar-cane harvest.

BOM meteorologist Pieter Claassen confirmed on Tuesday that rain clouds would likely gather over Townsville from about Wednesday.

“We are expecting, even from (Wednesday), starting to see an increase in showers and possible storms around the town and the region,” he said.

“Particularly from Thursday we are likely to see the peak of that activity, but quite wet weather continuing from (Wednesday) right through the rest of the week before starting to ease a little bit into the weekend.”

Cloud shrouding Castle Hill as rain sweeps into Townsville on New Year's Day 2023. Picture: Leighton Smith

Mr Claassen said the weather was being driven by a strong south-easterly wind surge working its way north, which was combining with an upper trough to the west.

“We are not expecting any severe weather impact per se but quite a decent amount of rainfall over the regional across the next few days.”

He said expected rainfall totals for Thursday were 5mm to 30mm, with similar levels forecast for Friday also.

“In terms of an event total we could see more than 50mm across the Townsville region.”

Mr Claassen said the weather was wetter than normal for the time of year but it did not signal the start of the Wet Season – yet.

“I do expect this to be a few-days event before things start to east backs towards more of the dry side of things by early next week.”

He said he expected rain to return in December with the forecast arrival of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, which BOM says is a “pulse” of cloud and rain that occurs near the equator every one to two months.

“When that’s in our region we typically see increased showers, thunderstorms, even increased potential for tropical cyclones,” he said.

“It could actually be the driver for our next wet event heading into early- to mid-December … and that could increase the rainfall once again over that period.”

Originally published as Townsville weather: Storm, rain forecast to lash North Queensland