Incessant heavy rainfall has caused rivers to rise to major flood levels along the northeast QLD coast. Homes have been inundated, forcing residents to evacuate. Some locations have seen a meter of rain in the past several days! Unfortunately, the rain shows no signs of slowing down soon.
The heavy rain band that caused serious flooding around Cairns and Daintree has shifted south and pounded the Townsville-to-Mackay coastline the past few days. Rainfall rates exceeding 25 mm/hr have been remarkably persistent. Many stations have reported daily rainfall totals exceeding 250 mm. The table above shows stations that have seen more than 700 mm since the weekend. Sandy Plateau is the winner thus far with 1089 mm. However, rainfall amounts for Thursday (31-Jan) are obviously only tallied for the first few hours of the day.
The graphic above shows the ingredients that have combined to create this near-biblical flood event. A deep, stationary low over northern Queensland is providing favorable wind flow patterns at all levels of the atmosphere. Tropical moisture is being dragged into the coast from the warm Coral Sea. This moist onshore flow is being enhanced by the near-coastal mountain ranges in the region. This pattern is expected to continue through at least Friday if not this weekend and beyond. Additional rainfall of 300-600+ mm is likely through early Saturday with more potentially in the longer range. Lead photo courtesy flickr user Sean Esopenko