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Brief monsoonal activity for QLD and the NT
Tristan Meyers, Saturday February 13, 2016 - 12:58 AEDT
The monsoon trough has made a glancing blow of Queensland's Cape York Peninsula and the Top End.
Yesterday, Horn Island got 134mm, the heaviest rain experienced in two years. For Cape Wessel and Pirilangimpi off the Top End, this was the best rain in two months with 50mm and 72mm collecting in the bucket, respectively. Here, torrential rain brought rates in excess of 14mm in 10 minutes at times.
These rainfalls are caused by a shift in wind direction from a dominant dry, southerly flow over the winter and shoulder months to a northerly direction due to the movement of a trough. Before these northerly winds reach the land, they become moisture-laden due to the warm waters in the Arafura Sea and Timor Sea.
These monsoonal rainfalls are welcome, since after a brief burst in late December and early January, the trough has been nearly non-existent, unusual for this time of year. In fact, rainfall anomalies were widespread 200mm under the January average. Nhulunbuy, Willis Island and Hughenden Airport were among those that received less that 15% of their average rainfall.
The consensus for the remainder of February and into March is that drier-than-average conditions will persist across the northern tropics. Although you can't rule out the thunderstorms bringing heavy, isolated downpours to some places in this period, this current episode of the monsoon trough looks short-lived. Established monsoonal activity may only come back later in spring for northern QLD and the Top End.
- Weatherzone
© Weatherzone
2016
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