Monsoon system wreaking havoc across Australia leaves towns cut off and roads flooded
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Loading... - Joanna Bailey
- 02 Feb 2022
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Fires, flooding and humidity may have made life hard for many Australians in the last week but it looks like there may be a reprieve as the monsoon system causing havoc across the continent is expected to break apart before the weekend.
A monsoonal weather system swept across the continent dragging with it tropical moisture from the equator that caused massive rainfalls from the far north-west of the country, right into central Australia.
An extra 100mm of rain was dumped across some parts of remote South Australia, hampering efforts to restore road and rail lines that had been cut after floods caused by ex-tropical cyclone Tiffany.
The situation meant desert communities across Western Australia, SA and the Northern Territory have remained cut off for the last week.
The Royal Australian Air Force began airlifting supplies into Coober Pedy on Monday, while store shelves in other regional centres such as Alice Springs remained bare after the town found itself unreachable by land with a growing Covid outbreak.
Though usually a rare event, the rain has caused the Todd River in Alice Springs to flow for the second time in three months. The last time it flowed was 10 November when 100mm of rain fell in 24 hours.
Out west, the Kimberley has gone from record making 50.7C temperatures in mid-January to widespread flooding across the region.
Areas around Perth and Geraldton may be sweating through temperatures nearing 40C and bracing for bushfires, but Broome recorded more rainfall in the 48 hours from Sunday morning than it did for all 2021, with 564mm of rain.
The most extreme conditions were at Country Downs, a cattle station just north of Broome, which recorded 652mm of rain in just 24 hours – more than Melbourne’s annual rainfall – the second highest daily rainfall on record in WA.
Jonathan How from the Bureau of Meteorology said the situation across central Australia should improve from Thursday, though the flood waters were likely to persist before draining into inland salt lakes.
“Thankfully the rain is easing off on Thursday,” How said. “We are seeing some cooler air coming through. It’s basically cooler air coming up from the Southern Ocean, moving up towards the monsoon, causing it to break apart and move away.”
There is also some good news on the way for Queensland, which has sweltered through a one-two-punch of hot weather and high humidity with some areas battered by severe storms overnight. Read More…
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