December 10, 2014

Friday to bring heavy rain, possible flooding to Gold Coast

***This rain event was cancelled due to unexpected good weather :) ***

Up to 125mm is expected fall on the Gold Coast over Friday and Saturday, similar to a rain event that brought heavy rain and flooding back on the 27-28 March 2014



A surface trough is expected to deepen during Thursday night along the NSW/QLD border to form a surface low over the south-east region during Friday.

As a result, Thursday evening is likely to see showers tending to rain areas with possible heavy falls into Friday, before beginning to ease on Saturday. Some areas north of Brisbane at this stage (currently shown in dark blue & purple on the rainfall forecast map) could see up to 300mm.

With these areas of heavy rain there's a high chance of flash flooding, and prolonged areas of rain may lead to creek and river flooding and flooding of low lying areas.

The "little BIG wet" back in March - which was originally forecast to bring 50-150mm - ended up dumping close to 400mm over hinterland areas.

This resulted in flooding of many local creeks, rivers, parks and roads - of which the most prominent was the flooding of the Caravan and Camping Show at the Mudgeeraba showgrounds, causing millions of dollars of damage.

Whilst the estimates aren't quite as high as the March event, we're expecting the Bureau of Meteorology may issue a Severe Weather Warning for heavy rain.

Until then, here's the forecast for the next 3 days:

Thursday: Partly cloudy. High (70%) chance of showers, most likely in the evening. The chance of a thunderstorm. Light winds becoming northeasterly 20 to 30 km/h in the middle of the day then tending northerly 15 to 25 km/h in the evening.

Friday: Cloudy. Very high (near 100%) chance of rain. The chance of a thunderstorm. Winds northerly 15 to 20 km/h becoming light before dawn then becoming southeasterly 25 to 35 km/h in the morning.

Saturday: Cloudy. Very high (near 100%) chance of rain. The chance of a thunderstorm. Winds southeasterly 25 to 35 km/h becoming light during the afternoon then becoming southerly 15 to 20 km/h during the evening.