Low
brings damaging seas to SE Qld, rain to NE NSWFlood
disruption continues in inland Qld, NT as Tennant Creek breaks rainfall
record
Heat
continues in the southOn the NSW Mid North Coast, moderate rain fell overnight on ground still wet from the floods of early February. Minor to moderate flooding occurred in the Hastings River, and minor flooding in the Bellinger, Manning and Williams Rivers (see below for flood peaks). 168mm was recorded in the 24 hours to 9am at Comboyne, on the plateau draining into the Hastings, Camden Haven and Manning Rivers, while Bellingen on the Bellinger River recorded 125mm.
A thunderstorm followed by torrential rain gave Tennant Creek Airport, NT, its heaviest 24-hour total for March on record this morning. 100mm was recorded to 9am, though 96mm of this fell in the 6 hours between 3 and 9am. The storm developed in a trough extending eastwards from former Tropical Cyclone Abigail toward the Coral Sea. Isolated heavy rain continues to be reported from the southern NT, with falls as high as 90mm in the 24 hours to 9am at Mt Denison, 250 km NW of Alice Springs. Most unsealed roads in Central Australia are impassable, with the main Plenty Highway northeast from Alice Springs closed to the Queensland border, and the Tanami Road northwest of the Alice to Western Australia also closed. Many remote communities are isolated but in no danger, though the evacuation of Kiwirrkurra, over the border in WA, which began yesterday, was completed today. In Queensland's Gulf Country, Burketown has been isolated for about a month by intermittent monsoonal rain. The town and surrounding pastoral properties continue to be supplied by air, or air drops.
High temperatures were experienced again today along the length of the country's southern coastline, from Albany in WA to western Victoria. Maximum temperatures were 10 to 12° above the March average, while in south central WA, overnight minima were up to 15 above, with many centres' temperatures failing to drop below the mid-20s.