After enduring hot and dry weather over the last month, rain has finally soaked Queensland's central east with some places seeing their heaviest rain in almost a year. A low pressure trough combined with a humid onshore flow to generate heavy showers and thunderstorms over the region last night, and particularly early this morning. Rockhampton collected 55mm in the 24 hours to 9am today, its heaviest daily fall since March, with 10mm falling in just 10 minutes. The area to the northeast of Rockhampton saw even bigger falls, with Samuel Hill collecting 78mm, also its heaviest since March with 13mm falling in just in 10 minutes. Nearby Byfield collected a hefty 83mm, one of the region's heaviest falls. Further west, Biloela picked up 35mm to 9am, its heaviest fall since March with 13mm in just 10 minutes, while Taroom collected 50mm, also its heaviest since early Autumn. The rain is good news for the region with many places seeing well below average falls since the start of December. Rockhampton picked up just 2.8mm for the entire month of December, its driest in 74 years of records, while many other places saw less than 20 percent of their monthly average. The patterns seem to have shifted for the time being though, with more wet weather on the way. A further 50mm is possible in the Gladstone to St Lawrence area today, while the Mackay region could pick up falls of more than 100mm on Thursday and Friday. From Saturday, showers should become much less frequent with much lighter falls expected as the trough moves well west of the region.