Cairns major flood after 1 metre of weekend rain
A tropical deluge in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Jasper has caused the largest flood in more than a century in the Cairns region of northern Qld.
Tropical Cyclone Jasper made landfall along Qld’s North Tropical Coast on Wednesday, December 13. Since then, the remnants of Jasper have been hanging around far north Qld, with an associated coastal trough also developing along the state’s North Tropical Coast.
This coastal trough has produced immense rainfall over the last couple of days. A rain gauge at Myola, located on the Barron River to the northwest of Cairns, received more than 1056 mm of rain between 9am AEST on Saturday and 9pm Sunday. This brought the site’s running 5-day total (9am Wednesday to 9pm Sunday) up to 1930 mm.
One of the remarkable things about this weekend’s rainfall is how persistent and intense it has been around the Cairns and Daintree regions. A rain gauge at Black Mountain, located south of Craiglie, reported a whopping 672 mm during the 12 hours ending at 3pm AEST on Sunday. This is similar to the 665 mm recorded at Myola in the 12 hours ending at 6pm on Sunday. If valid, both observations beat the previous record for the highest 12-hour rainfall on record in Qld, which was 617 mm at Paluma in January 1972.
The rain from Jasper and the more recent coastal trough has cause widespread major flooding along Qld’s North Tropical Coast. The Barron River at Myola exceeded the major flood level of 10 metres early on Sunday morning and had reached as high as 14.09 metres by 8pm AEST. This is close to 1.5 metres higher than the 1977 flood and the highest peak at this location since 1913.
Image: Highest annual flood peaks recorded for the Barron River at Myola. Source: Bureau of Meteorology
The flooding from this weekend’s phenomenal rainfall has inundated homes and airports, with numerous emergency alerts, severe weather warnings and flood warnings issued.
Be sure to check the latest warnings for the most up-to-date information as this event continues to evolve. You can also find breaking news updated on the ABC’s live blog.