Across the affected region, the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Alfred (Now downgraded) continues. Some of the key events to emerge for the 24 hours to 9 am Sunday morning include but not limited to:
- 1 x fatality which has occurred north east of Dorrigo (NSW).
- A major road incident involving two Australian Defense Force vehicles affecting 32 volunteer soldiers near Tregeagle south of Lismore.
- The regional city of Hervey Bay is impacted by a significant thunderstorm event from 4.24 am to 9 am Sunday morning which produced as much as 261.4 mm at the city’s airport. Such heavy falls were not expected to occur here.
- A weather station at Cape Moreton records a wind gust to 109 km/h at 12.52 am overnight Sunday morning.
- Heavy rain swamps the eastern half of Brisbane City with ensuring flooding.
- Moderate flooding (High end range and just below major flooding) impacts the Wilson River at Lismore - The flood peak is 9.31 metres, barely below major peak level.
- There is considerable power loss across South East Queensland. The most recent review of this suggests approximately 213,000 customers without power but numbers fluctuate.
The event is still ongoing. Heavy rainfall inundates Brisbane following the overnight totals that occurred.
In addition to this, a special thank you is given to Roz and Jeff who reside in the Bellinger Valley (South West of Coffs Harbour) and have presented a selection of photos showing the rain and a sample of local flooding of the area over the past two days. Permission is granted for use for this article.
The images throughout shows rain, swollen creeks and flooding. At the present time the Waterway Way between the Pacific Motorway and Dorrigo is closed due to flooding and landslides and residents are isolated or cut off by flood waters in some areas. It is noted that rainfall eased somewhat for the affected valley but the flood situation continues.
1 - Rainfall Bellinger Valley
- Point Lookout - 183 mm.
- Dorrigo Mt (Top) - 135 mm.
- Dorrigo (Bielsdown Creek) - 102 mm. Note - Over the past 4 days, the tally is now 813 mm which is an average of just over 200 mm per day.
While some easing of rainfall occurred, Waterway Way is closed and flooding inundates low lying areas. For the most part, rivers and streams are up to moderate flood level but the Bellinger River at Thora has just breached the major flood level with a peak height to date of 6.07 metres (At the time of writing).
Generally moderate flooding has occurred elsewhere across low lying areas.
2 - Rainfall and flooding Northern Rivers and Tweed Valley
Some easing of rainfall for some areas but still significant totals for other localities. This includes:
- Upper Rous River (Hoplin Creek) - 197 mm.
- Couchy Creek - 170 mm.
- Mullumbimby - 144 mm.
- Huonbrook - 134 mm.
There are other 100 mm totals and numerous localities having 50 to 99 mm for the period.
Flooding is an issue and moderate to major flooding prevails including:
- Lismore - The Wilson River peaks at 9.31 metres which is just below the major flood level. At the time of writing, the river level is stable but high end moderate flooding continues. The major flood level is 9.7 metres. The river has peaked 390 mm below the major flood level showing how close this was.
- Major flooding occurs at Coraki. The major flood level is 5.7 metres with a flood peak ongoing at 5.97 metres.
- The river to watch is the Clarence at Grafton as high end moderate flooding is occurring with the river nearing major flood level (Major flood level at Prince Street is 5.4 metres). The river level at the time of writing is 5.28 metres and rising.
3 - Rainfall Queensland (Brisbane city)
The primary focus of the event now extends into south east Queensland as Brisbane (Mainly the eastern half) is impacted by high rainfall totals well in excess of 100 mm with some localities approaching 200 mm (To 9 am Sunday).
Isolated higher totals have occurred around Brisbane including:
- Mt Glorious Alert - 322 mm.
- Mt Raynbird Alert - 227 mm.
- Mt Nebo Alert - 222 mm.
The outer western suburbs were spared the worst of this with much lower rainfall totals.
At the time of writing significant rainfall totals continue as moderate to heavy rain inundates most of the city.
4 - Rainfall Queensland (Gold Coast region)
Some very high rainfall totals including:
- Upper Springbrook Alert - 271 mm.
- Benobble Alert - 261 mm.
- Mt Tamborine - 249 mm.
Widespread 100 to 200 mm common across Gold Coast city to 9 am Sunday.
At the time of writing significant rainfall totals continue as moderate to heavy rain inundates the region.
5 - Wind speeds
Notwithstanding the downgrade of the storm, the weather system still has some wind energy as shown:
- Toowoomba - There were seven wind gusts exceeding grater than 90 km/h between 9.58 pm and 3 am with a single gust of 98 km/h at 3 am. Toowoomba is situated around 130 km west of Brisbane.
- Redcliffe - A peak wind gust of 104 km/h occurred at 9.30 pm late Saturday evening.
- Cape Morton - A peak wind gust to 109 km/h occurred at 12.52 am and 1 am early Sunday morning.
6 - Hervey Bay
A separate and localised even on the far north west tip of the system has produced an astonishing rain event lasting over 4 hours. A stationary thunderstorm dropped 261 mm of rain between 4.24 am and 9 am Sunday morning. Averaged across 4.5 hours, this is sustained at 50 mm or higher per hour. This is a high end event for Hervey Bay and flash flooding has occurred.
The storm system continues to back build to the north west towards Bundaberg at the time of writing. This is followed by another 57.6 mm to 2pm.
7 - The other related events
- Power loss to a sizable population base.
- A high number of road closures.
- Damage to buildings, marina.
- Tree damage.
- Road and infrastructure damage.
Is a result of this weather event. It is not even possible at the present time to consider cleanup operations. The true aftermath is not known until the weather event eases which should start to occur during Monday.
The feature image above shows the storm with the map it traveled superimposed over the top. The image is available via “Image of the Day” and taken by NASA using VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the NOAA 21 Satellite captured Friday 7 March 2021.
With NASA tracking this storm system, it also shows how unusual the system is and how significant that the storm has become.