Southern Queensland faces colder and wetter days ahead

Rug up - today will be the coolest March day so far this year across the south-east with Toowoomba in for a wet week.

RAIN, RAIN HERE TO STAY: Toowoomba and other parts of southern Queensland are in for a wet, cold week according to experts from BoM. Picture: Pixabay

It’s looking to be a cold, wet week for the Garden City with plenty of rain forecast for the Darling Downs region over the next several days.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, large parts of southern Queensland will face wetter days with a southerly wind cooling things down across Toowoomba.

Meteorologist James Thompson from the BoM said the region has been experiencing relatively warm days of late with humid conditions, making this week’s colder conditions felt more dramatically.

“We’re just starting to see the beginning of this new cold front, which has swept in across parts of southern and central Queensland and as far south as some northern parts of New South Wales in the last 24 hours,” Mr Thompson said.

“Today will be the coolest March day so far this year across the south-east.

“For some of these regions the cold snap has been quite significant with temperatures dropping as drastically as 20 degrees in the space of a day.

“Toowoomba is currently sitting on 19 degrees as of Monday midmorning, and it’s only expected to reach a high of 20 throughout the day.

“But with the significant cloud cover hanging around and the winds coming up off the range in the evenings it will mean the night time temperatures aren’t predicted to get much cooler than the day time temperatures, which will reach lows of 16 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday.”
Mr Thompson said the cool period is predicted to remain for the next three to four days as the cold front continues to move in over the Darling Downs, with Toowoomba maximums set to slowly rise from Wednesday onwards.

“Daytime temperatures are going to be significantly below average over the south in the next few days but Toowoomba will experience a gradual warming as the cold front moves away and the southerly winds ease midway through the week,” Mr Thompson said.

Friday and Saturday are set to reach the mid to high 20s with maximum temperatures of 26 degrees predicted for both days.

As for rainfall, it’s highly likely Toowoomba will continue to experience wet weather for the next three days with 80 per cent of 10-25 millimetres predicted for Wednesday and a 70 per cent chance of 4-15 millimetres on Thursday.

Similar conditions are in the works for Oakey, with particularly chilly conditions predicted for Wednesday with temperatures set to get as low as 15 degrees and only reach a high of 22, with a 70 per cent chance of 10-45 millimetres of rain.