Heavy rain and flooding remain the main concern across the Northern Rivers and south-east Queensland as the ex-tropical cyclone stalls off the south-east Queensland coast.
‘The ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred is still sitting just off the coast. However, it’s become extremely slow moving over the past six to eight hours, and is likely to remain slow moving through the rest of today,’ explained Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury.
‘We do still expect it to gradually make its coastal crossing though, and then continue moving inland through the next few days.’
What does that mean?
The wind direction was from the south-east and that has changed shifting to more of a direct easterly flow.
‘The reason this is important is that that direct easterly flow pushing along the coast is going to lead to a greater convergence of those showers and thunderstorms as they interact with the land. Greater convergence will lead to more fuel for any rain showers and thunderstorms that do develop through the rest of today, we’re going to see that risk of heavy rain really increasing, particularly through south-east Queensland,’ said Ms Bradbury.
‘That means for the Gold Coast, the scenic ring rim and for Brisbane the wettest period is likely to develop in the coming hours, continuing into this evening.’
Heavy falls are still possible outside of this area including in the Northern Rivers with a severe weather warning in place for heavy to locally intense rainfall. These areas are already saturated so extra rainfall is likely to see a quick rise in water levels and flash flooding.
‘In this severe weather warning area, the heavy rainfall may deliver 24 hour rainfall totals of 100 to 200 millimetres over the next day, where those falls are highest, we may see those totals pushing up to two to 300 millimetres,’ said Ms Bradbury.
‘Over the coming days, we may see several of these flood watch areas upgraded to flood warnings as that water moves through the catchment systems. The damaging surf and abnormally high tides may still lead to coastal inundation and coastal erosion over the coming hours, we should see that gradually starting to ease back in the next 24 hours or so this weekend, rainfall and flooding continue to be a huge concern.’
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