Rainfall totals from Bureau of Meteorology show areas of NQ received annual rainfall totals in two weeks
North Queensland has broken records numbers over the last two weeks of wet weather and flash flooding across the region, with some places recording more than 2m of rain.
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North Queensland has recorded staggering numbers of rainfall over the last two weeks of wet and wild weather and flash flooding across the region, with some places recording over 2 metres of rain.
Rainfall numbers from the Bureau of Meteorology showed that in the last 14 days up to 9am on February 12, Paluma Ivy Cottage recorded 2712mm of rain – more than their average annual rainfall figures.
Senior meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology Baden Gilbert said the weather brought more rainfall than usual for the wet season.
“A bunch of sites have recorded their wettest month on record, that includes Rollingstone, Halifax and Bambaroo,” he said.
He also said it was the wettest February on record for Townsville, and was almost the wettest month on record.
“We are simply about 5mm short of the record.”
Mr Gilbert said the past two weeks have been “very unusual” with the consistency of the rain.
“Townsville recorded more than 10mm of rain for 16 days in a row, which is pretty notable,” he said.
“Normally, you get days where it doesn’t rain during the wet season for Townsville, so to go that many days with consistent rain is notable.”
Other areas with some of the highest rainfalls included Cardwell Range with 2467mm, while 2293mm was recorded at Cardwell Gap Alert and 2246mm at Macknade Sugar Mill.
The Bureau of Meteorology said while the rain has eased, widespread flooding is still occurring at major rivers with Moderate Floods Warnings for the Ross, Bohle and Black Rivers and the Haughton River Catchment and Major Flood Warnings for the Herbert River on Wednesday.
Conditions across North Queensland are seeing rainfall easing over the Townsville area, as showers and thunderstorms continue north of Innisfail with the monsoon through to weaken and shift north into Cape York.
Townsville is seeing some showers over Wednesday, but partly cloudy conditions are forecast for Thursday and Friday with a possible shower predicted for Saturday.
Conditions are also clearing up in Ingham, with a shower or two for the rest of Wednesday before partly cloudy conditions forecast for Thursday and Friday.
“We’ve had that low move offshore on Tuesday and Wednesday and that's dragging drier southerly air up the coast on it’s western side,” Mr Gilbert said.
“That’s why we have seen a return to much more dry conditions.”
Similar conditions are predicted for Ayr and Bowen.
As the rain eases, temperatures will also begin to rise again.
“We are going to see temperatures being a bit higher than they have been for the past while,” Mr Gilbert.
“This month so far the warmest maximum temperature we have had was 30 degrees in Townsville, but we’re looking at temperatures getting back to 33 and 34, so it will definitely feel much warmer than it has done the past few weeks.”
More areas with some of the heaviest falls include:
• 2186mm at Pace Rd Rollingstone
• 2128mm at Rollingstone
• 2094mm at Paluma
• 2077mm at Halifax
• 1798mm at Ingham Pump Station
• 1190mm at Townsville Aero
Originally published as Rainfall totals from Bureau of Meteorology show areas of NQ received annual rainfall totals in two weeks
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