Prosper in a dynamic world
Search

One month’s rain in a day soaks central QLD, more to come

Parts of central Queensland just received over a month’s rain in 24 hours, with more wet and cold weather on the way in the next few days.

A low pressure trough located over QLD is drawing moisture-laden air from the Coral Sea, leading to widespread cloud and rain over central parts of the state.

Image: Visible satellite image from Wednesday morning showing cloud over central Qld.

In the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday, falls of 30 to 60mm were recorded between Mackay and Townsville. This included 59.8mm at Mackay Airport and 55mm at Eungella Dam.

Mackay’s long-term monthly average for June is 59.5mm, making the 59.8mm that fell during the last 24 hours equivalent to an entire month’s rain at this time of year. It was also Mackay’s wettest June day in 21 years.

The trough will continue to produce widespread cloud and rain over central Qld on Wednesday and Thursday, with some showers also extending to the state’s north and southeast. The map below shows how much rain one computer model is predicting over Qld on Wednesday and Thursday combined.

Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the 48 hours ending at 10pm AEST on Thursday, June 26.

Rain will start to ease from Friday as the trough weakens, although showers will linger over some parts of the state through the rest of this week.

There are also signs that another band of rain could develop over southern Qld from Sunday into the start of next week as a northwest cloudband drifts across eastern Australia. The days of thick cloud forecast, will likely reduce solar output across Qld.

Weatherzone Business and Solcast are a market-leading partnership delivering highly specialised solar data to the Australian renewable energy industry.

Designed for utility scale solar sites, we offer you a globally proven solution.

With low upfront CAPEX and powerful cloud-based information systems, you can access a complete suite of irradiance and weather data to ensure forecast accuracy and improve site efficiency.

Solcast is the world leader in real-time actuals and rapid-update solar forecasts. This solution utilises Solcast’s centralised Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) cloud infrastructure for all complex algorithmic processes and data plumbing. You will gain the power of AWS to interpret and deliver your data at top speed, providing real-time, historical and forecasting estimates direct to your API.

Receive monitoring and support from the Weatherzone and Solcast teams, 24/7.  To find out more, please contact us at apac.sales@dtn.com. 

Latest news

Satisfy your weather obsession with these news headlines from around the nation, and the world.

US Climate Prediction Center declares La Niña – what this means for Australian industries?

A La Niña advisory has been issued by the US Climate Prediction Center (CPC), indicating that La Niña conditions have emerged in the tropical Pacific Ocean and are expected to continue for the coming months. What is La Niña? La Niña is one of three phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a coupled ocean-atmosphere […]

Severe thunderstorms, dry lightning and damaging winds spark fires over NSW

Fires were triggered in central NSW by dry lightning on Wednesday as high-based severe thunderstorms tracked over the region which also produced damaging winds. The satellite loop below shows a cloudband moving over NSW on Wednesday afternoon and evening. Clear skies through the earlier part of the day allowed ample surface heating, helping fuel and […]

Rain remains elusive for many Australian agricultural and forestry industries despite expectations of a wet spring

Australian agricultural, forestry and fire emergency agencies and industries that were hoping for a wetter than average spring have been left disappointed by a lacklustre start to the season, despite the emergence of a strong negative Indian Ocean Dipole in recent weeks. Official rainfall outlooks at the end of August were pointing to a good […]

Vast northwest cloudband brings record rain to WA gold mining centre

A huge northwest cloudband stretching from Indonesia to waters east of New Zealand has delivered the heaviest October rainfall on record to the WA gold mining city of Kalgoorlie. Extending at least 8000km, the cloudband has brought rain over the past couple of days not just to WA, but all the way east to large […]