East coast weather: flood warnings for Queensland and NSW as BoM forecasts heavy rainfall

Eden Gillespie
<span>Major flooding was affecting parts of Sydney on Friday afternoon, as New South Wales and parts of Queensland have been advised to prepare for more wet weather.</span><span>Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP</span>
Major flooding was affecting parts of Sydney on Friday afternoon, as New South Wales and parts of Queensland have been advised to prepare for more wet weather.Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Heavy rainfall will drench parts of Queensland and New South Wales this weekend, with motorists urged to stay off roads.

Laura Boekel, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said a trough is affecting both Queensland and New South Wales, producing a significant amount of rainfall across the two states.

“The atmosphere has a lot of moisture in it at the moment and the result of that is we’re seeing these storms producing quite a lot of rainfall,” she said.

Major flooding was affecting parts of Sydney on Friday afternoon, with drivers warned to avoid non-essential travel.

A severe weather warning is in place along the NSW coast from Morisset, south of Newcastle in the Hunter, to Bega on the South Coast and extending west to the Central and Southern Tablelands past Oberon and Goulburn.

Severe thunderstorms are possible from the Queensland border south to Wollongong and west to Griffith and Cobar.

Sydney faced its highest daily rainfall in two years, recording 111mm of rain in 24 hours and was on track to surpass its average total rainfall for April before the weekend.

The city is forecast to experience falls of between 10mm and 50mm on Saturday, according to the BoM, with rain easing on Sunday.

Warragamba Dam – Sydney’s main reservoir – was 96.3% full and likely to spill on Monday, the chief executive of Water NSW, Andrew George, warned.

“We require about 90mm of rain to fill Warragamba Dam … we’re expecting 100mm to 150mm,” he said.

An inland low and coastal trough joining forces over NSW are driving the deluge.

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The ongoing intense downpours would drive “dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding” from Friday evening, the SES warned.

Intense rainfall will continue over the weekend in parts of south and south-east Queensland, Boekel said.

“For parts of the southern and southeastern interior, widespread showers and thunderstorms will continue today and into tomorrow,” she said.

“Localised heavy falls could occur over the weekend and the area where we’re likely to see the most risk is the area south of Brisbane [on] Logan, Gold Coast and the Scenic Rim areas.”

A major flood warning is current for Charleville’s Warrego River in the state’s south west. River levels are expected to rise above moderate levels on Friday evening after several days of heavy thunderstorms.

A flood watch alert is in place for the Macintyre, Weir, Moonie and Balonne rivers.

Rainfall is expected to ease later in the weekend and next week, Boekel said.

Queensland police deputy commissioner, Shane Chelepy, asked motorists to reconsider their need to travel this weekend.

“We’ve seen some significant accidents on our roads today in the wet weather,” Chelepy said. “Please, if it’s flooded, don’t drive in it.”

Chelepy said emergency services were expecting a peak of 6.7 metres at Charleville.

He said levee gates, with a capacity of about 7.9m would be put in place on Friday afternoon.

“[This] will protect the town and we’re not expecting the flood waters to exceed that but … the disaster management groups very active in that area,” he said.

The SES has received 59 calls for assistance across the state, according to acting commissioner at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service, Brian Cox.

“What we’re asking people to do is to remain vigilant. With the current weather conditions, flash flooding can occur in hours, not days,” Cox said.

Related: Man found dead in Queensland floods as black nor’easter weather system hits eastern Australia

“The next 24 or 48 hours is going to be important … There will be short bursts of water in already water affected areas that can impact you, your family and your friends.”

In NSW, the SES undertook seven flood rescues overnight and responded to more than 550 incidents across the state in the past 24 hours.

Nine schools across NSW were shut down and 92 flights were cancelled or delayed at Sydney Airport.

Train services face major delays because of damaged equipment at Redfern station in inner Sydney.

Power was also cut to a major city-centre court complex after the rain affected local electricity infrastructure.

Additional reporting by AAP

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