Weather News

Long dry spell ends in parts of western Queensland

Overnight thunderstorms brought an end to the two-month dry spell in parts of western Queensland, including Longreach.

The storms only brought one millimetre of rain to Longreach, but it ended a 64-day dry spell, its longest in three years.

Many other locations only picked up a few spots, not even enough to register in the gauges.

There were a few more fortunate places, mainly north east of Longreach, where storms were bigger and longer-lived.

As much as 53mm of rain was reported at Marengo. The Central West property had not recorded any rain in the previous 68 days. The last time it got this much rain was when flooding occurred in March, six months ago.

Further showers and storms are likely over western Queensland later today and tomorrow, before the offending low pressure trough weakens and the air dries up.

Towns such as Quilpie and Cunnamulla are a chance to end their 65-day dry run. This is Cunnamulla's longest dry spell in 10 years, exceeding the 60-day run in 2006.

If these and other places miss out today and tomorrow there's another chance late in the week, when another trough arrives. This trough is looking weaker than the current system, so it doesn't bring much hope.

Neither of these stormy systems will have any impact on the far west of the state, where Thargomindah and Birdsville are entering their third month without rain. They may have to wait another few weeks.

Since La Nina ended in autumn the atmosphere had been stripped of a lot of moisture, giving farmers some concerns about rainfall this spring. At least some moisture is returning this spring, courtesy of periods of easterly winds blowing off the Coral Sea.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2012

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