Rob Sharpe, 23 Aug 2014, 3:51 AM UTC
Soaking rain swamping Southeast QLD
Southeast Queensland has been engulfed by heavy rain due to an east coast low.
Areas of rain spread over QLD's Southeast Coast on Friday as a low pressure trough deepened off the coast. By today the trough had deepened and gained some rotation, forming an east coast low.
Over the last 48 hours parts of the Sunshine Coast have seen over 100mm and its heaviest rain since early autumn.
Maleny was engulfed by 74mm in the 24 hours to 9am, its heaviest rain since March last year. Sunshine Coast Airport has now seen over 100mm from this event, with further heavy falls coming until tomorrow morning. Brisbane has also seen consistent rain, with 26mm so far. Further inland, even Toowoomba has seen 10mm from the event.
The low pressure system off the coast will very slowly move away from the coast on Sunday, allowing rain to ease back to showers across the Southeast Coast.
There will then be some reprieve on Monday as the low and trough focus its energy on the NSW coast. There should only be the odd coastal shower on that day.
On Tuesday and Wednesday the showers will spread back across southeastern QLD with unstable air moving into the region. Farmers in the Darling Downs and Granite Belt can expect widespread 5-15mm. This will delight many farmers who are hoping for at least a small dose of follow-up rain to last week's widespread event.
From Thursday the unstable air will move off the coast again with a high pressure ridge taking its place. This will bring an extended run of mostly dry conditions across southeast QLD that residents in the Southeast Coast district will appreciate after this wet spell.
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