A cyclone threat remains for north Queensland from the weather systems lying off Cairns and the Gulf of Carpentaria, which have brought torrential rain in recent days.
A cyclone threat remains for north Queensland from the weather systems lying off Cairns and the Gulf of Carpentaria, which have brought torrential rain in recent days.
By Savannah Meacham and Laine Clark
January 31, 2025 — 9.13am
Two tropical lows are bringing a “huge” amount of rain to northern Australia with a wet weekend to come.
A cyclone threat remains for north Queensland from the weather systems lying off Cairns and the Gulf of Carpentaria, which have brought torrential rain in recent days.
Another two tropical lows are off Western Australia’s north coast, one with the potential to form a cyclone by Sunday.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury warned it would be a very wet end to the week for the north tropical coast stretching up to Cape York and over to the Gulf country.
The area between Mackay and Cairns was expected to be hit on Friday by severe thunderstorms with locally heavy falls.
“These areas have already seen a huge amount of rain so far this week, and additional rainfall is likely to lead to further flash flooding, inundation of roads, leading to lengthy detours, as well as damage to some property and vegetation,” Bradbury said.
Rain was expected to ramp up between Cairns and Bowen from Friday night with the risk of life-threatening flash flooding and damaging winds.
“This risk will continue into the weekend with high rainfall amounts of several hundred millimetres, likely on a daily basis,” Bradbury said.
Advertisement
It follows up to 150mm of rain falling around Bowen, Mackay and the Daintree coast in the 24 hours to Friday morning, with some areas recording even heavier downpours.
“It was certainly a wet 24 hours, but not quite as wet as what we saw earlier in the week,” Bradbury said.
Upper Finch Hatton – inland from Mackay – received 181mm while Diwan on the Daintree coast received 179mm in the past 24 hours.
Loading
In the past week, up to 939mm of rain was recorded at Mount Sophia and 905mm at Clyde Road, both near Cairns, with more than 600mm at other locations.
Flood watches have been activated for rivers from Cairns to Townsville.
The tropical low off the coast of Cairns was a low chance of becoming a cyclone.
The second system over the Gulf was forecast to move south-west in the early part of next week with a low chance of becoming a cyclone from Saturday.
“We need to remember that even without tropical cyclone intensity, any low-pressure systems in the tropics are likely to lead to widespread heavy rain, an increased flood risk, strong and gusty winds and an elevated sea state,” Bradbury said.
Loading