Severe thunderstorms and rain sweep parts of Queensland

ABC NEWS (Australia)

This summer of rain in Queensland just won't let up. There are places in the south of the state where around 300 millimetres fell in 24 hours, and it's continued today with up to 150 millimetres falling around the sunshine coast. And there is more on the way with a number of communities on alert for rising flood waters.

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00:00 Well, Jo, it started to ease in the past hour or so, thankfully, after what has been a very

00:06 hectic 24 hours, not just here on the coast, but in many parts of South East Queensland.

00:12 This weather system really hit in last night and in the northern end of Brisbane, and there

00:17 were falls of more than 300 millimetres around the Sanford area.

00:21 Then the system slowly crept up the coastline, and it was about lunchtime here on the Sunshine

00:26 Coast where we saw some very heavy falls, more than 100 millimetres in just a few hours.

00:31 That of course led to flash flooding, even water into some homes in the Caloundra region,

00:37 and it's caused chaos in some of the roads.

00:39 There's been a number of accidents, including an accident involving five people in the Gympie

00:43 region.

00:45 Just to give you an idea of some of those rainfall figures, 165 millimetres fell at

00:49 Bells Creek in just a couple of hours.

00:52 There's been 142 millimetres in the Caloundra area just since 9am.

00:57 Now, it's gotten to the point where a number of local schools have texted parents telling

01:01 them to pick up their kids because of the worsening weather situation.

01:05 There's been, as I mentioned before, flooded roads, and people are just being urged to

01:10 take care as these conditions continue.

01:13 What's the prediction for tonight and tomorrow?

01:17 The Weather Bureau just gave us an update a short time ago, and they're saying that

01:21 the rain is still expected to continue in short bursts tonight and into tomorrow.

01:26 Here's a little of what the Bureau had to say a short time ago.

01:30 We are starting to see an easing trend later on Wednesday, where this trough that is causing

01:36 all of this storm activity, along with the ex-tropical cyclone, the trough does move

01:42 offshore, so we are expecting to see a decrease in the rainfall for the southeast as we move

01:47 towards the end of the week.

01:49 But definitely we still have that mechanism to produce really heavy showers and storms

01:54 over the next 24 hours.

01:57 We have had some very hot days in the past few weeks.

02:01 There's been heatwave conditions.

02:02 It feels like it's gone on for a couple of weeks at least, and so it is a bit of a reprieve

02:07 to have the temperature finally cool, but I think we're hoping for a return to normal

02:11 very soon.

02:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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