Heavy rain continues to fall across South East Queensland, with flash flooding concerns growing as slow-moving storms linger over the region.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of the Scenic Rim, Southern Downs, Lockyer Valley, Somerset, Toowoomba and Sunshine Coast.
The latest warning shows storms near Cunninghams Gap, Mount Mee and Woodford at about 11:30am. The slow-moving cells are forecast to track towards Oakington, Moogerah and Maryvale at 12:25pm, before reaching areas around Moogerah Dam, Aratula and the D’Aguilar Ranges at 1:10pm this afternoon.
Amberley has recorded around 60 millimetres of rain in the past 48 hours, while Greenbank has received about 70 millimetres and Gatton 28 millimetres.
Motorists are being urged to drive to the conditions, with water reported over roads at Ebenezer, Rosewood, Ripley and Goodna in the Ipswich region.
BOM Senior Meteorologist Angus Hines said today’s rain isn’t expected to be short-lived.
“It’s gonna last in some areas all through the day. It’s not necessarily going to be raining this intensely all day, but broadly speaking, really wet day, probably not easing off until perhaps 6 to 8pm this evening.
“I think today is the wettest day of the bunch. Today’s the day where we’re most likely to have those warnings and that intense rainfall, but the next few days could still bring some top-up rain onto whatever happens today,” he said.
Mr Hines said saturated ground and rising rivers were increasing the risk of flooding through the weekend.
“The ground is saturated, the rivers are already starting to rise, so definitely flooding is going to be a risk through the rest of this weekend.
“The smaller river catchments around the Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast areas can rise really quickly when heavy rain falls.
“So I think there’s a high chance we will see some of these rivers reach flood levels and potentially break their banks and cause flooding. We just don’t know exactly where that will happen yet,” he said.
For the latest warnings visit the Bureau of Meteorology website https://www.bom.gov.au/weather-and-climate/warnings-and-alerts
For roads closures and other information visit the Queensland Traffic website https://qldtraffic.qld.gov.au/
