Significant flooding continues in north-east Queensland but heavy falls are now easing.
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00:00Areas of significant flooding continue to impact the northeast tropical coast of Queensland,
00:05even as heavy rainfall start to ease off.
00:08Overnight, we've seen our flood warning for the Herbert River be upgraded to a major
00:13flood warning as significant rain has fed into that system.
00:17The river level at Halifax is now sitting above 5.3 metres above that major flood level
00:23and it may reach 5.5 metres later this afternoon.
00:26We may also see major flooding occurring on the Herbert River at Ingham through the
00:30course of today.
00:31A number of other flood warnings remain in place, including a moderate flood warning
00:35for the Bowley River and several minor flood warnings elsewhere along this stretch of coast.
00:41Rainfall from the past 24 hours has built on top of very high rainfall totals over the
00:45past 4-5 days.
00:48Grounds are very saturated and rivers are already swollen, meaning that this additional
00:52rainfall that we've seen over the past day has simply nowhere to go and therefore
00:57has greatly increased the flooding situation in these areas.
01:00Namely, it's been these persistent areas of showers and thunderstorms streaming in
01:05from those offshore areas and feeding into the coast.
01:08In the 24 hours to 9 o'clock this morning, we've seen 453 mm at Cardwell Gap, 351 mm
01:15at Trebonne and 267 mm at Ingham Airport, with widespread totals in the 1-250 mm range
01:24across this entire stretch of coast between Cairns and around Eyre.
01:30Through the rest of today, we're likely to see showers and thunderstorms continuing across
01:33this same stretch of coast.
01:35Now the risk of heavy falls is still present, but it's much, much lower than what we saw
01:40yesterday and in the overnight period.
01:43As we move through the later part of today and go into tomorrow, those heavy falls are
01:47likely to become even less of a risk, with showers starting to become a little bit patchier
01:51as well.
01:52Now, as I said, thunderstorms may play a part in boosting those rainfall totals today, but
01:58it's only non-severe storms that we're expecting across the coast between Cairns all the way
02:02down to Mackay or so.
02:05Severe thunderstorms are not currently expected, as that heavy rainfall is too low a risk to
02:10reach that grade.
02:12If we zoom out a little bit, we can see that storms are actually possible across much broader
02:15parts of northern and inland Queensland.
02:19We've got significant moisture streaming off the Gulf of Carpentaria and feeding into a
02:23likely thunderstorm risk across parts of the Peninsula, the Gulf Country and the Northwest
02:28Districts.
02:29Now, some of those areas have seen rainfall totals of 50-90 mm in the past 24 hours, and
02:34this additional moisture streaming in is going to feed into any showers and storms that develop
02:39through the rest of today.
02:40We may even push towards the southwest of Queensland as well, with rainfall possible
02:45in those areas further south.
02:49So to round out, the main hazard we're seeing today remains the major flooding on the Herbert
02:53River and the minor to moderate flooding that we're seeing elsewhere across this stretch
02:57of coast.
02:58As we go through the next few days, we are going to see that risk of heavy falls easing
03:02back, which means gradually our rivers will start to come down as well.
03:06But the acute impacts from days of heavy rain are still being felt.
03:10Now, you can find the detailed forecast via our website or via the BOM Weather app, and
03:15of course, listen to all advice from your emergency services during this period.