Heavy rain and storms to end heatwave
Updated ,first published
Heavy rain and storms that affected Brisbane on Thursday evening put an end to the heat that prevailed in the city for most of the week.
While the temperature in the city of Brisbane reached 35 degrees on Thursday, residents of Ipswich were overwhelmed by 37 degrees.
But senior meteorologist Angus Hines said major showers around 6pm would bring a cool change, with rainfall totals threatening to rise up to 150 millimeters over the next 24 hours.
“This could lead to flash flooding in parts of Brisbane – carrying the risk of flooding – we could also see rivers west of Brisbane start to rise due to heavy rainfall in the catchment,” he said.
A severe weather warning for heavy, locally heavy rainfall was issued at around 12.30pm and it is predicted that much of the south-east of the state will be affected, with the risk of dangerous and life-threatening flash floods.
While a heavy rain warning was issued around 18:00, a heavy rain warning was also issued.
A separate severe storm warning was also issued at the same time, including a damaging wind warning. This trough was expected to miss Brisbane and instead hit areas such as Toowoomba, Gatton, Dalby and Caboolture.
Hines said the change in temperature could be dramatic, with Friday’s maximum temperature in Brisbane potentially 10 degrees cooler than Thursday.
He said that the rain will probably continue to fall on Friday and that there is a possibility of heavy rain until 18:00.
Hines said the rain may taper off over the weekend, but more storms and showers are out of the question.
“Storms on Saturday and Sunday could dump more precipitation on the city after a very wet work week,” he said.
“If you’re tired of the heat, [there’s] “There are definitely some milder temperatures coming, but that will come hand in hand with quite a bit of precipitation.”
The Seqwater flood operations center was alerted to the expected rain on Thursday afternoon.
Controlled flooding may occur from Wivenhoe, Somerset or North Pine dams in the next 48 hours.
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