Toowoomba, Warwick, Granite Belt in for showers, storms at weekend

Pockets in the western and northern flanks of the Darling Downs had a good run of rain in the past week. That water added to flows making their way to Lake Eyre via our major river systems.

Roads were closed due to flash flooding.

Flood alerts remain in place for the Upper Balonne, Maranoa and Warrego River catchment as a large volume of water moves from North Queensland to Lake Eyre.

This flow has been topped up by heavy falls in the Darling Downs and Southwest Queensland, leading the Bureau of Meteorology to forecast a minor flood risk for the Upper Balonne and Maranoa Rivers systems and a medium risk for the Warrego River.

BOM forecaster Livio Regano said the good news for fearful residents was that a change in the wind direction will result in the bulk of the approaching rain falling on Toowoomba, Warwick and the Granite Belt.

“It will mostly be showers and the odd thunderstorm,” he said.

This will bring relief to areas around Roma, Miles, Chinchilla and Dalby which received big falls in the past three days.

In the past 24 hours Warra received 51mm of rain, Seven Oaks had 47mm, Miles had 46mm and Condamine got 32.

There were reports of flooding along Chinchilla-Tara Road, Gulera Road at Ducklo, Cooyar Road and Dalby-Cecil Plains Road at Dalby and patches of the Warrego Highway.

Turkey Mountain, to the north of Miles, had 60mm in two days.