Queensland set to record wettest December in more than a decade

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Queensland is set to record its wettest December in more than a decade - with more rain forecast, and water being released from three dams as a precaution.

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00:00Well, it is certainly reminiscent of more than a decade ago.

00:05Now, the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that for this month of December, Brisbane

00:09has recorded more than 300 millimetres of rainfall, and the reason why that's so concerning

00:14is because the last time we saw a summer as wet as this was back in 2010, and that was

00:20ahead of the deadly 2011 flooding event where 36 lives were claimed.

00:24Now, back then, the city recorded 470 millimetres of rainfall for the month of December.

00:30The Bureau says that Brisbane is on track to either exceed or reach that total, so major

00:35concerns there.

00:36As a precaution, SEQ Water have already started their flood releases for dams including Somerset,

00:42Wyvernhoe, as well as North Pine, and the major issue here is that a lot of those started

00:47yesterday afternoon.

00:49Now, dozens of road closures are in place across the state.

00:53That's due to the flash flooding events that we're seeing.

00:55Already saturated catchments mean that a lot of these roads are prone to suddenly have

01:00a lot of water on them.

01:01The main message from authorities is to make sure you drive to those conditions.

01:05There were also more than 80 SES call-outs for assistance in the last 24 hours.

01:10A lot of those have been infrastructure leaks as well as falling trees.

01:15There was also a swift water rescue where two women had to be rescued in the inland

01:19of southern Queensland, and that's largely due to flash flooding.

01:23They were rescued off the tray of their ute.

01:25Now, as the state is incredibly large, it goes from one extreme to the other, while

01:30here in the southeast we are bearing the brunt of wet weather.

01:33In northern and western parts of the state, they are sweating through heatwave conditions,

01:38temperatures reaching into their mid to high 40s for today.

01:41And while those conditions in the southeast are expected to ease off from tomorrow as

01:45that trough continues to move offshore, the main issue now is that tropical low that has

01:50the potential of forming off the far north.

01:53While it is unlikely to be developing into a tropical cyclone, it is expected to deliver

01:58a lot of rain for the far north as well as central parts of the state.

02:02So again, a lot of eyes on what could be happening as we head into the weekend.

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