Rain, hail and flooding: How south-east greeted our unseasonal downpour
It’s a bit wet, Higgins Storm Chasing posted last night as Brisbane and the southeast were bucketed with unseasonal rain.
Average rainfall for the month of May was eclipsed in one day as rain, hail and flash flooding hit Queensland's south east overnight. Photo: ABC
There was minor flooding on the Gold Coast, lightning storms in Brisbane’s southern suburbs and two hail storms in Tooowoomba right when things should be settling down for a dry, mild winter.
Brisbane normally receives about 70mm of rain in May, but that was easily surpassed in one day. On the Gold Coast 150mm of rain fell in 24 hours and Maroochydore, on the Sunshine Coast had about 60mm.
Minor flooding occurred at Loders Creek, Southport and there were still 26 road closures around the coast this morning. Motorists were warned to exercise extreme caution.
A marine wind warning was also issued for the Gold and Sunshine coasts.
The cause of the rain was a moist, onshore wind that was feeding a trough and heavy falls were recorded as far inland as Roma.
The central Queensland coast, around Yeppoon, also received more than 100mm this week.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s forecast for today is for a very high chance of rain, easing to showers in the morning and becoming less frequent in the afternoon. Light winds becoming south to southwesterly 15 to 20 km/h in the middle of the day then becoming light in the evening.
