‘Unpredictable’ cyclones and one metre of rain: Australia’s wild weather rolls on
Tropical lows sitting off northern Australia may develop into two cyclones, while the east coast continues to be lashed by heavy rain.
Weatherzone meteorologist Tom Hough told Yahoo News Australia parts of South East Queensland could see between 40-80mm on Wednesday and 100-150mm on both Thursday and Friday.
“In our latest modelling there is a slight chance of a total of half a metre to a metre of rain to have fallen in total over the next week,” Mr Hough said.
Forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology show Brisbane could receive up to 120mm on Thursday and 80mm on Friday. Light showers could also continue over the weekend.
Huge rainfall totals in Queensland
Brisbane copped 38mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday but further north on the Sunshine Coast there was substantially more with Nambour receiving 217mm.
At least a dozen drivers have were rescued after their cars became submerged in the Gympie and Sunshine Coast regions, with one woman losing her life. A train was also derailed at Traveston northwest of Noosa amid the deluge on Wednesday.
QR Acting Chief Executive Scott Riedel said the driver, who was the only person aboard, was shaken but not injured.
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The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service sent emergency alerts to residents in the Gympie, Noosa and Sunshine Coast local government areas warning of flash flooding.
"Residents are being advised that roads and bridges may be impacted," the alerts say.
Sydney’s suburbs also weren’t spared the big wet on Tuesday either. Bankstown received more than 103mm between 9am Tuesday to 9am Wednesday.
Olympic Park had more than 90mm in the same 24 hour period. Flash flooding inundated suburbs in the city’s Inner West with Marrickville recording at least 110mm.
Rescue crews attended more than 15 flood rescues across Sydney and the Central Coast with 450 call-outs statewide.
"We are imploring you, with 15 flood rescues in inner Sydney and up at the Central Coast, that's too many... Please don't drive through floodwater," the SES said.
Sydney’s forecast over the next few days will see the rain ease somewhat with totals of about 10-15mm possible from Thursday through to the weekend.
Lows may form into cyclones
Weatherzone said a number of forecast models show “two tropical lows may develop near northern Australia later this week, one to the north of WA and the other somewhere around the Gulf of Carpentaria or northern Coral Sea”.
“Despite La Niña, Australia has been having a relatively quiet tropical cyclone season so far,” Weatherzone said.
“Since the start of November, there have only been four cyclones named inside Australia’s area of responsibility. This is well below the seasonal average of 11-12.
"The last tropical cyclone named in the Australian region was Tiffany, which first formed on January 8, well over a month ago.”
The run without any new tropical cyclones could be about to end though, with the monsoon trough becoming active over northern Australia this week, and the Madden-Julian Oscillation moving over the Maritime Continent (north of Australia), Weatherzone added.
"Both of these features are known to cause an increase in the likelihood of tropical cyclone activity," Weatherzone said.
Mr Hough said these systems are “notoriously unpredictable”.
He said the lows are unrelated to the rain along the southeast coast.
“Neither are expected to make landfall,” he said.
Weatherzone advised people living in Queensland, northern WA and the NT to keep an eye on the forecast in the coming days due to "a large degree of uncertainty".
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