Australians are being blanketed under heavy rainfall, with flooding watch alerts spanning from Darwin to Melbourne after some areas receive almost a year’s worth of downpour in days.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said the tropical low 29U moving west on the Coral Sea had brought 100-300mm of rain to areas between Cairns and Townsville in the last 24 hours.
“We could see hundreds more millimetres of rainfall there in the coming days,” Mr Narramore said.
“We’ve got a moderate chance of the 30U which is off the coast of WA, and the 29U on the Coral Sea becoming a tropical cyclone as they move westwards.”
Severe weather warnings have been issued in Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and Darwin as a result of the rainfall.
“We have flood watchers current pretty much from Darwin all the way down to Melbourne,” Mr Narramore said.
“We’ve seen widespread heavy rainfall through eastern South Australia, western NSW and northern and northwestern Victoria.
“Many locations, particularly in outback South Australia, NSW and northwestern Victoria have had anywhere from six to almost 12 months of rainfall over the last few days.
“In the last 24 hours, we saw widespread falls of 50 to 100mm in Northern Victoria and western NSW.”
Mildura in northwest Victoria has experienced severe flash flooding after 150mm of rain fell in the area in the last three days.
Their annual average is 290mm.
“They have seen six month’s worth of rain and many other locations are seeing season’s worth, and even year’s worth of rainfall,” Mr Narramore said.
“That’s why flood watches are current for much of the Northern Territory, Queensland, western NSW and western and northern Victoria.
“In Queensland we have many flood warnings current with major flooding on the Georgina River, Flinders River, Thompson River, Cooper Creek and in the north tropical coast the Herbert River as well.
“That will be a concern in the coming days with more widespread rainfall expected there on the north tropical coast.”
