‘Pretty uncomfortable’: Brisbane swelters after storms, flash flooding

Brisbane residents endured muggy, stifling conditions on Monday after slow-moving thunderstorms pummelled the city at the weekend, with heavy rainfall, flash flooding and a dam overspill.

Any cool reprieve from the weekend’s wet weather was shortlived, as the temperature peaked at 31 degrees in Brisbane’s CBD about 1.30pm on Monday, while the relative humidity was an oppressive 81 per cent.

The conditions were on par with those experienced in the wet tropics. The dew point – a more accurate measure of the humidity – in Brisbane was about 22 to 23 degrees, similar to Darwin.

“It’s pretty uncomfortable,” forecaster Shane Kennedy from the Bureau of Meteorology said.

The hot, sticky conditions were forecast to remain for the rest of the week, with daily maximums of 30 degrees predicted ahead of 31 degrees on Saturday and 35 degrees on Sunday.

It marks a dramatic change from the weekend when storms battered Brisbane, turning roads into rivers and swamping cars.

More than 50 millimetres of rain was dumped over in the CBD in 30 minutes on Sunday, while surrounding suburbs bore the brunt of the wild weather, with 70 millimetres falling at Rosalie in an hour and 77 millimetres at Holland Park West.

Further south, Upper Springbrook on the Gold Coast recorded more than 260 millimetres of rain in 24 hours.

At Highvale near Samford, just north of Brisbane, 128 millimetres of rain fell on Sunday. It was the highest daily rainfall total for December in the area in 60 years, Weatherzone’s Brett Dutschke said.

Video footage showed water turning Brisbane’s Roma Street into a river while southern suburbs including East Brisbane and Stones Corner became lakes due to floodwaters.

“It fell very quickly,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Daniel Hayes said.

“Given that we had a significant amount of rain the day before [Saturday] as well, and we’ve had a fair bit over the previous few weeks, pretty much everything that fell yesterday became run off and that did lead to that flash flooding that we saw.”

Residents across Brisbane reported flooding as the city recorded 53mm from 9am to mid-afternoon Sunday. Credit: Reddit

Homes, backyards and cars were inundated, with the State Emergency Service responding to 91 storm-related calls for help.

Three people were rescued from cars stranded in floodwaters and one person was pulled from a kayak.

On Sunday afternoon, Seqwater warned Moreton Bay residents of flooding from potential overspill of the North Pine Dam.

Kennedy said the heavy rain eased from Sunday evening as “deeper moisture in the cloud band” moved offshore.

“From Monday, we may see some light showers around and just a low chance of a thunderstorm, but [we’re] expecting the rainfall to be much lighter overall,” he said.

However, storms could return from next Sunday, he added.

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