Wet season produces downpour in north

A monsoon trough which hovered over Far North Queensland at the weekend is slowly drifting south and is expected to remain over Mackay before making a u-turn back north later this week. 

The Daintree area was the hardest hit with the Daintree River peaking at a record 12.60 metres at Daintree Village overnight on Saturday, eclipsing the previous flood record height of 12.4m in 1901.

Bureau of Meteorology Brisbane meteorologist Harry Clark said residents from Cairns to Mackay could expect heavy rain for the remainder of the week.

And with already saturated catchments, there is the potential for rivers to rapidly rise should more rain arrive.

The heaviest falls in the 24 hours to 9am on Tuesday were between Cardwell to Mackay, with falls averaging 50mm-100mm.

Heavier pockets were recorded, with Upper Majors Creek inland of Giru receiving 262mm, while Sandy Plateau between Proserpine and Mackay received 388mm.

Mr Clark said useful rain had fallen on inland areas including in the Gulf Country and parts of the north-west.

Walkers bend, south of Normanton picked up 123mm, Cloncurry had 17mm, Julia Creek, 31mm with Richmond and Charters Towers both receiving 21mm, following a wet weekend at the Goldfield Ashes.

“Those falls are on the lower end but they are still better falls than they have seen in quite some time,” Mr Clark said.

He said Winton had received 5mm, while showers were expected to expand in areas of the central-west, north of Windorah and Emerald where between 10mm-30mm is forecast.

Mr Clark said showers and storms would continue to build, with areas on the coast north of Mackay to receive the highest rainfall.

“Toward the end of the week the monsoon will move northward again and shift to areas that had rain earlier in the week.

“Given how wet a lot of the catchments are it is likely flood warnings will be extended in coming days. There will be widespread rain for the rest of the week with that monsoon sticking around.”