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 Heavy
rain causes damage in SE QLD, NE NSW
Areas of rain, including some torrential rainbands and widespread
thunderstorms, moved eastwards across SE QLD and NE NSW late yesterday and
today. A strong infeed of moist air from the Coral Sea combined
with a surface trough and upper low to produce the rain and storms. The heaviest
rainbands formed along lines of locally converging winds, the most notable
crossing Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Tweed Valley in the early daylight
hours of this morning. Tweed Heads with a 24 hour total of 130.6mm to 9am,
headed a long list of heavy falls (see wettest below).
Showers and storms formed over the Darling Downs late yesterday afternoon,
the showers moving east but the storms steered NE by upper winds from the west
to the north of Toowoomba. One cell moved NE from Tara, 75km SSE of Miles,
leaving
a broad
swathe of deep hail and causing water damage in one home. Biloela experienced
golfball-sized hail, and wind strong enough to lift roofs from some houses
and blow down power lines causing electricity disruptions. ABC Capricornia
Radio
told
the
story
of one
lady stuck in her car with young children while it was lifted
in the wind as hail stones smashed the windows. By
early evening, a broad area of rain extended from Bundaberg to Coffs Harbour
and
inland
across
the
ranges.
Thunderstorms
died
out and the
rain moved offshore by about 3am today, but lingered around the Gold Coast
and Tweed Valley. Hervey Bay SE of Bundaberg recorded 74mm between midnight
and 3am.
A strongly marked convergence line
formed south of Toowoomba before 5am then moved ENE,
giving
the heaviest
downpours
of the
day
around
Brisbane, the Gold Coast and south to about Lismore before it moved offshore
around 9am. Coolangatta Airport recorded 44mm between midnight and 6am, then
a further 51mm to 9am for an October record 117.0mm in the 24 hours to 9am.
New October one-day rainfall records, albeit for stations with short records,
were also set at Logan City (47.0mm) and Ballina Airport (78.0mm), though the
70.0mm at Tabulam (Muirne), 60km W of Casino, set a more respectable record
with 34 years of observations. At Ballina, several homes and business were
reported flooded. (See downpours for details
of torrential rain.) The Gold Coast rain was said to be the heaviest one-day
fall in 20 years, and totals of around 200mm for the day in the catchments
of the Hinze and Little Nerang Dams improved the city's water supplies to 63%
of capacity while the rain has reduced consumption by one-third.
The rain caused damage in the Gold Coast hinterland where a 30m gum tree crashed
onto a Mudgeeraba hotel roof and four cars. More than a dozen homes reported
water damage from Broadbeach Waters to Palm Beach. Rainfall totals between
20 and 80mm in the Wide Bay-Burnett region were welcomed by cane growers as
rain was badly needed for next year's crop after one of the driest periods
since April on record.
During the afternoon, storms redeveloped from the Darling Downs north to the
Central Highands and moved east, giving heavy rain from the Sunshine Coast
north to Bundaberg. Thousands of residents of Bundaberg, Childers and Gin Gin
lost power during the night when lightning struck powerlines, while a
storm bearing copious hail hit Eidsvold, 130km SW of Bundaberg, flooding a
hotel. |
Records set
this day (previous record and years of computerised record shown in brackets):
Highest daily rainfall for October
Queensland:
040717 COOLANGATTA AIRPORT 117.0 (90.4, 11)
040854 LOGAN CITY WATER TREATMENT 47.0 (46.6, 12)
New South Wales:
057095 TABULAM (MUIRNE) 70.0 (60.5, 34)
058198 BALLINA AIRPORT AWS 78.0 (72.2, 7)
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