Weather News

Western Queensland rain only patchy and brief

Brett Dutschke, Monday June 29, 2015 - 13:33 AEST

Cloud building over western Queensland is causing rain to develop but is little more than a tease for drought-affected farmers due to it being patchy, brief and generally light.

In addition, once this rain clears mid-week it looks like being at least a fortnight before anything significant develops again.

Luckily for some there were unseasonably good falls a few weeks ago, particularly in the Maranoa and Warrego, where some towns are sitting on more-than-double their monthly average. Mitchell, which should only see about a millimetre of rain, on Tuesday, is having its eight wettest June in 128 years of records, receiving 94mm so far.

A low pressure trough is gaining instability as the upper atmosphere cools, and is combining with moist winds blowing off the Coral Sea, reaching peak intensity on Tuesday. That is not enough time for the trough to become very intense or fill up with enough moisture to bring anything other than patchy, mostly light falls.

Apart from a few small areas of the southwest the coming rain will only be light and patchy, effectively leaving farmers with barely enough to settle the dust for a few days.

Oakey and Boulia have both gained less than 20 percent of their monthly average and should only pick up a millimetre or two at the most. Boulia is running about 140mm short of its year-to-date average, Oakey 70mm short. This is the story for most of western Queensland, which has been running well-below average since 2011.

On the other hand, one of the wettest areas in the coming days, with more than enough to settle the dust, should be around Cunnamulla where 10-20mm is possible. The town on the Warrego River is already having its wettest June in nine years with 46mm so far. Another 10-20mm would make it their wettest in 20-to-30 years.

The trough will weaken rapidly on Wednesday, leaving only the odd light shower. A ridge of high pressure will then take over and possibly hang around until mid-July.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2015

Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search

Weather News

» all stories

A digger's letter from snowbound Gallipoli

08:00 AEST In weather terms, the Anzacs at Gallipoli copped it all – from parched, scorching summers to freezing winters as weather systems with origins in the Russian Arctic surged southwards over Turkey.