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Above: Rainfall map for the
week ended 9am Monday 12 January shows general falls of 50 to over 100mm
across
Central QLD. BoM
Below: QLD Rainfall gaugings for the 24 hours to 9 this morning show the
heaviest falls in central western areas. BoM  |
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 Heavy
rain, storms bring QLD flooding
Heavy rain fell for the third day in a row across much of QLD apart
from the southwest. The falls, mostly from
thunderstorms or the rain areas left after they dissipated, were again heaviest
close to and just east of a trough which lay from Goondiwindi to Mt
Isa late this afternoon. The diurnal pattern of storm development and decay
was similar to yesterday, with thunderstorms firing up in NE NSW/SE QLD
around midday and spreading to most of the state from the trough east to
the coast
by 3pm. Most storms had decayed by midnight, but those in the central and
southern inland continued to be active until around dawn.
Heavy falls this afternoon included 32.8mm in 39 minutes at Richmond Airport
and 41.8 in 2 hours at Toowoomba. Over the border in NSW, Casino Airport recorded
48mm in 2 hours to 10pm. Details of heavy overnight falls are given in the
report for 12 January.
While the storm falls have been patchy, three days of patchwork
rainfall has begun to give the state a reasonably even distribution of
totals, with only the southwest and far southeast not recording 25mm in the
week
to 9am Monday. A large area of Central QLD recorded from 50 to
over 100mm. The heaviest falls in this area for the week have been 210.2 at
Blackall town and 145.0 at the airport, 193 at Raymond, 95km SSW of Springsure,
and
138 at Taroom, 140km NE of Roma, On the coast, Hazeldean, 35km SW of Gladstone,
recorded 155.8mm. The rain has farmers smiling, with dams filling and heat-stressed
stock and pastures recovering. Over the 18 months to December, a large area
bounded by Longreach, Augathella and Tambo and east to Taroom has been in severe
rainfall
deficiency, with rainfall in the lowest 10% of totals. A pocket west of Tambo
recorded its driest 18-month period in at least the past century. This area
has received between 50 and 150mm over the past few days.
The continuing heavy falls on now sodden catchments have resulted in some
rapid river rises in Central QLD. The Nagoa River at Raymond was 3.1m above
the bridge
and rising fast at 9am, and the Barcoo at Tambo had exceeded minor flood level
by 6am.
Hot
in Perth and SW WA
Perth experienced its hottest January day in 6 years today when the mercury
reached 40.5 shortly before 2pm. The maximum at the Airport was 41.2, 9.7 above
average. Morawa and Geraldton recorded tops of 43.2 and 43.1, the highest in
the country. Maxima around the coastal fringe from Geraldton to Albany were
around 8 to 12 above average.
Fire
threatens homes in Central Western NSW
A bushfire started by haymaking equipment yesterday burnt
through 230ha of farm and pastoral country at Mt David, 45km south of Bathurst
today. 20 sheep
and 15km of fencing were destroyed and three houses threatened at one point.
Wet
in western TAS
Somewhat surprisingly, the highest rainfall recorded nationally in
the week to 9am this morning was 225mm at Mt Read, 25km north of Queenstown
TAS. While
the TAS West Coast is renowned for its rain, January is its second driest month
with a district average of only 130mm. However, the past week has seen a return
to a wintery synoptic situation for the state, with constant westerlies and
at least four major cold fronts crossing, each bringing heavy rain and, on
at least three days, some snow to the higher peaks of the West Coast and Central
Plateau. Mount Read is the highest point in this area of the West Coast
which is generally accepted as the wettest -- nearby Lake Margaret Power
Station has averaged
169.7mm in January over the past 59 years with an annual average of 2951.8mm.
Its wettest January was 435.2mm in 1987. The mountain's average rainfall over
the six Januarys for which records have been
taken is
165mm,
with the
heaviest
monthly
total
325.2 in 2002.
News sources: West Australian, ABC, |
