“Vehicles driving slow trying to navigate around it all. Cops with brooms trying to dodge traffic. It’s pretty nasty.”
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a general severe storm warning on Friday afternoon for heavy rainfall and potential flash flooding across parts of the south-east, Darling Downs and Granite Belt.
Mount Sylvia, south-east of Toowoomba, recorded 82 millimetres of rain in just one hour, though falls in the area had eased by 5.30pm.
Bureau forecaster Rosa Hoff said the chance of rain, storms and temperatures in the high 30s would continue over the coming 24 hours.
“For the Brisbane and Gold Coast areas we’re expecting between 25 and 30 millimetres to be the maximum amount of rainfall,” she said, on Friday.
“With conditions easing mostly for the south-east from Sunday morning, it looks like this will be the best of it.”
Developing storms could also bolster localised rain totals.
The east Brisbane suburb of Bulimba had received 53 millimetres in the 24 hours to 9am on Friday, while the city itself recorded 26 millimetres.
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Further south, 178 fell near Mount Barney on the NSW border.
Little rain fell on the region later in the day, with Redland on Brisbane’s east and Amberley to the west recording just 11 millimetres each, the only double-digit totals to 6pm.
Further north in Monto, 50 millimetres fell between 9am and 6pm, with Gympie managing 9.4 millimetres.
Further west, rain gauges hit the 150-millimetre mark in Queensland’s central and southern interior after a drenching on Thursday.
Wendy Sheehan had not seen decent rain on her south-west Queensland property for nine months until the downpour created raging rivers for her dogs to play in.
Footage also emerged of a massive dust storm sweeping through the south-west Queensland town of Quilpie on Thursday before heading south into New South Wales.
“This rainfall is certainly a step in the right direction for south-east Queensland, however, with very isolated high totals and generally patchy rainfall across the board, we haven’t seen a strong response from rivers,” Ms Hoff said.
“Instead the majority of this rain has soaked into the ground fairly quickly.”
Additional moisture in the ground will likely help reduce fire danger across the state, which had already started to ease in recent weeks.
The “slow-moving” system came after a late start to the Australian monsoon season, caused by climate drivers in the region, delaying the start to south-east Queensland’s wetter months.
Below-average rainfall is still forecast for the months ahead.
“As we start to see a bit more moisture in the upper atmosphere, particularly some starting to cross the tropics, things are looking a little better for our outlook,” Ms Hoff said.
“But unfortunately we still see suggestions that we will be getting some below-average rainfall … or less reliable rainfall for a number of people in Queensland.”
Matt Dennien is a reporter for the Brisbane Times.
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