Rainmageddon Coming? Ahhh.. Not Quite

Bureau updates us on rain event


Article heading image for Rainmageddon Coming? Ahhh.. Not Quite

Pic: BOMĀ 

The Bureau of Meteorology is slightly downplaying this 'rainmageddon' storm event crossing Queensland and much of Australia's East Coast over the next few days and reports the rain could be worse than what we saw during Cyclone Debbie.

Forecaster Julian DeMorton has told us, by no means will these cells be anywhere near as destructive as a tropical cyclone.

"It's still a rain event with reasonable rainfall totals, but it's not going to be anything like TC Debbie. During Debbie there were some horrendous thunderstorms, we're not forecasting that this time round," he said.

"We've got a flood watch out from Gladstone to Tully and we're expecting decent totals from 100-200mm, so even though i'm saying it's not comparable to Debbie it's still a reasonable rainfall."

And while it is right to say some parts of the East Coast could see a months' rain in just a few days, DeMorton says we have to remember May is usually quite dry and the monthly top might not actually be that significant.

"The averages are certainty a lot less in May than the averages we see over Summer. A months' worth of rain in Brisbane for May is under 100mm. A lot of places will see a months' rain in a day but it's not exactly a cause for too much concern. It's common to have events like this throughout the year."

"Most of the time in Queensland we have pretty good weather and a lot of the rainfall that makes up our average is often the result of 1 or 2 events within the month. So it's often we can see that much rain in one event."

Brisbane and South-East Queensland is expecting between 25mm and 75mm of rain from Friday, before a drizzly weekend.

As for the rest of the East-Coast, small rain totals are expected in areas of NSW and Victoria from today and in Tasmania on Saturday.

Keep up to date with flood warnings HERE

18 May 2017




Listen Live!

Up Next