Bureau of Meteorology expects NQ to be soaked by ‘interesting’ wet season

Keep your umbrella handy because NQ is going to be soaked over the coming days, with flash flooding warnings in place. Check out the latest forecast, which includes Christmas Day.

The wet season is well and truly upon North Queensland, with umbrellas expected to get a good workout as a wet Thursday gives way to a Friday drenching that could deliver huge rainfall totals and flash flooding in some areas.

Flash flooding warnings are in place for the Herbert, Ross and Bohle rivers, as well as plenty of other catchments across the wider region.

Meanwhile, the Townsville City Council’s Emergency and Disaster Management dashboard has warned motorists that Allambie Lane in Rasmussen has been closed, advising them not to cross flood waters.

As of 5.25pm motorists have been urged to seek an alternative route.

Discussing the escalating inclement weather on Thursday, Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Steve Hadley said it was “starting to get interesting” in terms of the wet season.

Allambie Lane has been flooded over and motorists have been warned not to cross.

He said there was a moist, warm tropical air mass hovering over the Townsville area, generating showers and storms, with two rainfall drivers expected to head into this region from the north and south.

“There’s some areas of focus where we might get some heavy rainfall over the next few days, particularly around a coastal trough that’s around the Central Coast, but that’s going to push up towards the Townsville area over the next 12 to 24 hours,” Mr Hadley said.

“And then there’s this other area over Cape York Peninsula, which could actually move south, towards the north Tropical Coast around Cairns overnight, and also be around the Herbert and Burdekin area, around Ingham and Townsville (on Friday).”

Thunderstorms were expected to hit North Queensland on Thursday. Picture: BOM.

In the Townsville region on Friday, he said there would be increasing south easterly winds, quite a lot of cloud cover, and rain throughout the day.

“We’ve got this concern that there could be some heavy, or even very locally intense rainfall around the Townsville region. If it falls down intensely enough, there’s the potential there for some flash flooding over the next 24 hours or so, where we get the heavy rainfall.”

Rainfall forecast for North Queensland on Friday. Picture: BOM.

Around 25mm was expected to fall between Ingham and Bowen, with some places likely to get above 80mm, and a couple of spots might receive between 150-180mm.

Rainfall totals will decrease further inland, with 15-40mm expected to fall at Charters Towers.

Mr Hadley said this water would impact on the region’s rivers and creek systems, prompting a flood watch for North Queensland and a couple of minor flood warnings, like for the Don River, near Bowen.

Predicted rainfall distribution for North Queensland on Friday. Picture: BOM.

“Isolated, minor flooding is possible in coastal and adjacent inland areas between Innisfail and Bowen, including Townsville (but) it does take quite a lot of rainfall to produce moderate or major flooding in the area,” he said.

The flood watch lists several nearby catchments including Herbert River, Black River, Ross, Bohle River, Haughton River, Burdekin River downstream of Burdekin Falls Dam, Don and Proserpine Rivers.

Looking towards the weekend, he expected the bulk of the rain to move offshore, although there would still be isolated showers until early next week.

Predicted rainfall distribution for North Queensland on Saturday. Picture: BOM.

Christmas forecast

Mr Hadley expected a nice couple of days of weather in the lead up to Christmas for the Townsville region, although there would be some shower activity on Christmas Day, with a 30 per cent chance that up to 1mm could fall.

The expected temperatures of 32 degrees maximum and 25 degrees minimum were close to the summer averages.

Eight day rainfall forecast for Queensland. Picture: BOM.

Originally published as Bureau of Meteorology expects NQ to be soaked by ‘interesting’ wet season