 |
| Rainfall pattern across SE QLD for the 24 hours to 9am Sunday. BoM |
Several clusters of thunderstorm cells brought strong winds, heavy rain and
vivid lightning to SE QLD this afternoon and evening. A storm that developed
to the west of Kilcoy, 75km NW of Brisbane, moved east at first, then propagated
both to the SE through Caboolture for 3 hours and to the NE through Rainbow
Beach for 6 hours, littering roads with tree branches and downing some powerlines.
Another cluster that developed along a line from Toowoomba to Casino NSW around
6pm moved east, reaching maximum intensity as it crossed the Gold Coast and
the southern suburbs of Brisbane around 10pm. An interesting third
cluster that developed NW of Dalby around 5pm moved ESE at first, weakening
in the
Toowoomba
area
around 10pm, but then regained intensity, possibly from the outflow in the
wake of the second set of cells, and reached peak intensity north of Gatton
around 11pm. It then gradually decayed as it continued eastwards, bringing
further heavy rain between Beenleigh and Caboolture.
The widespread storms, in addition to providing a spectacular lightning
show, also provided Energex with numerous lightning-strike problems. 27,000
homes were blacked out in SE QLD during the evening, and 2,000 were still without
power at 8am Sunday. The rainfall pattern for the 24 hours to 9am Sunday, all
of which can be attributed to the storms, is shown in the map. The
heaviest falls were in Brisbane's southern and southeastern suburbs
which
benefited
from
both the second and third storm clusters. Capalaba topscored with 113mm, while
Mansfield recorded 103 and Eight Mile Plains 102mm. At Mansfield, 30mm fell
in the 2 hours before midnight and 61mm in the hour between midnight and
1am Sunday. See the National Extremes for Sunday for
more 24 hour falls. On the Gold Coast, Clagiraba Road, 5km east of Mt Tamborine,
produced
the highest
total
with 80mm of which 72 fell in the hour to 10pm, followed
by Evandale, just south of Surfers Paradise, with 69mm of which 59 fell in
the hour to 11pm. Falls were generally lighter on the Sunshine Coast, where
Cooroy topscored with 46mm,
while farther
north, a gauge on the Burrum Highway 20km SW of Bundaberg recorded 61mm and
Hervey Bay Airport had 52mm. |
