Queenslanders are being told to brace for extreme wet weather and flooding, as the Bureau of Meteorology predicts the possibility of severe thunderstorms and heavy rain across parts of central and eastern Queensland, with areas in north and west Queensland expected to be the worst affected.
The Bureau warns the weather situations will affect most of the state over the weekend, and through to next Thursday.
Queensland is set to be hit hard with record breaking deluges over the coming days and will see falls nearly ten times more than the monthly average.
Sky News Senior Meteorologist Thomas Saunders posted in a tweet on Tuesday, that according to data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) modelling, the state could receive record May rain next week with falls across the state and up to 200mm through the west.
“We could see May rain records broken in the towns and cities which end up seeing the heaviest falls,” Saunders said.
He told Sky News “there are no clear signs that the rain is going to end anytime soon across the country,” and is expecting extra wet weather for many parts of the country compared to normal, due to extra moisture flowing in from both the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in the coming season.
Many parts of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have already been battered multiple times by severe weather events in recent months. The coming downpour poses an extremely high risk of flooding as rivers and catchments are already soaked and ground moisture levels are high.
Saunders said “It’s no surprise many Aussies are fatigued from this wet weather. It’s been relentless due to back-to-back La Niña events that have particularly targeted south-east Queensland into New South Wales and eastern parts of Victoria.”
