The downpour is likely to move south and deliver rain into the state’s south east from Friday, but Higgins Storm Chasing said a “phenomenal” amount of moisture was being dragged across the state’s north west by a tropical low in the gulf.

“This will be very heavy rainfall falling over an area that’s already experiencing major flooding, with the Gregory, Nicholson and Flinders Rivers all comfortably above major flood thresholds and continuing to rise. This is starting to become a big problem across north west Queensland.

Showers and thunderstorms are possible in the upper Diamantina catchment over the next few days and floodwaters continued to move slowly through the Diamantina River catchment.

A flood watch is current for the Gulf Country and parts of the Lake Eyre Basin Rivers, which includes the Diamantina catchment.

A major flood warning is current for the Flinders River downstream of Richmond in Queensland, moderate flood warnings are current for the Lower Daly River, and minor and generalised flood warnings are current for large parts of the NT and western Queensland.

Rain is expected to hit Brisbane and the south east from Friday and deliver the area a wet weekend.

Up to 150 mm could fall in some coastal areas and showers were forecast as far out as Tuesday, next week.

In other weather news, Cyclone Freddy, which was born off the coast of Western Australia on February 6, is about to become the longest-living cyclone on record, according to Weatherzone.

The cyclone has travelled from WA across the Indian Ocean, crossed Madagascar, smashed into Mozambique, moved over Zimbabwe and crossed back to the Mozambique channel.

It has lasted for 31 days and Weatherzone said that while some of this time was spent over land as a tropical depression, rather than a cyclone, it should still qualify as a contender for the longest living tropical cyclone in the world.

The record holder was Hurricane/Typhoon John which lasted 31 days in 1994-95 and travelled more than 13,000km.