Parts of drought-affected central and southern Queensland are receiving some welcome rain this week, with Maryborough just collecting its best drop in three years.

While La Niña has been delivering above-average rain to large areas of Australia during the last few months, a big chunk of Queensland has been missing out on the wet weather.

At the beginning of February, around 67 percent of the state was drought declared. For some pockets of the state, this has been the driest start to a year in over a century. 

As of 9am on Monday this week, Rockhampton had only received 68.8mm since the start of 2021. This was its driest start to a year on record, with data going back to 1888.

Fortunately, a well-positioned low pressure trough interacting with moisture-laden air has delivered some much-needed rain to drought-weary areas of central and southern Queensland over the last couple of days.

Image: Combined satellite and radar image showing cloud and rain over Queensland on Monday afternoon.

During the 24 hours to 9am on Tuesday, falls of 30-60mm were recorded over a broad area stretching from the Maranoa and Warrego District up through the Central Highlands and Coalfields and across to the Wide Bay and Burnett and Capricornia coasts. Some places even picked up more than 100mm.

Maryborough’s 103.2mm during the 24-hours to 9am Tuesday was its highest daily total since early 2018. It’s also more rain than the city received during the first two and a half months of this year. Rockhampton collected 32mm, which was its best daily rainfall so far this year. 

But while the recent rain has been welcome, it hasn’t been enough to eradicate the rainfall deficits that have built up over a number of months, and in some places, years.

At 9am on Tuesday, a long stretch of the coast and adjacent inland from about Mackay down to the Sunshine Coast was still running about 200-400mm below their average year-to-date rainfall totals.

Despite Rockhampton’s recent rain, this is still the city’s second driest start to a year on record.

Thankfully more rain will fall over central and southern Queensland during the remainder of this week, helping ease these rainfall deficiencies a bit further in some areas.