The Sunshine Coast has been warned to expect up to 200mm of rain in pockets as the south-east corner braces for an extreme weather event this weekend.
A month’s worth of rain could be dumped on Sunday as the weather bureau also warned of huge seas, gale-force winds, extreme high tides and possible flash flooding.
Already overnight Friday, heavy rain drenched the Coast with the Sunshine Coast Airport copping 91mm – (47mm of that falling in a one-hour period between 1am and 2am).
Sippy Downs recorded 52mm, Tanawha 53mm, Mountain Creek 52mm and Maroochydore 50mm.
Most areas of the Coast were hit with between 20mm and 50mm overnight but the rainfall is expected to ease over the course of Saturday.
There could be more showers on Saturday afternoon and the bureau is predicting some thunderstorms over the hinterland.
However the more extreme conditions are forecast to drench the Coast over a 12-to-18-hour period from Sunday afternoon into Monday, with up to one month’s rainfall to dump from the heavens.
About 100mm is rain is expected across a widespread region of the Coast, with up to 200mm possible in “elevated” pockets.
Meteorologist Pieter Claassen said: “It’s a pretty big one.”
Mr Claassen said gale force winds similar to a category 1 cyclone could smash the Coast on Sunday, with speeds of 65km/hr to 75km/hr coming off the ocean.
The hightide was expected to exceed the highest astronomical tide, possibly causing coastal erosion.
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A severe weather warning for damaging winds, abnormally high tides and dangerous surf is in place from Fraser Island to the NSW border.
A strong wind warning has been issued for mariners from Mackay to the Gold Coast, with gales of up to 40 knots possible.
Big swells up to 4.5m are expected and a flood watch alert is in place for low-lying areas.
“We could exceed the highest tide of the year by a metre,” meteorologist Ricus Lombard said.
“We’ll (likely) get storm surge from the big swell.”
Severe Weather Update: prolonged heavy rain, strong winds & possible coastal erosion for northeast NSW & southeast Qld.
Video current 2.30pm AEDT, 11 Dec 2020. Latest forecasts & warnings https://t.co/Q2phqvflYZ. @ABCemergency @QldFES @NSWRFS #flood #kingtide #getready pic.twitter.com/ckQAArW7Aj
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) December 11, 2020
Significant beach erosion in coastal areas is also possible into Tuesday when a new-moon king tide is forecast.
The 1000km-long and growing weather system moved east over the Great Dividing Range on Friday afternoon.
“The system is still amplifying. It hasn’t reached its maturity but it’s already coming across the Darling Downs,” meteorologist Livio Regano said.
“It’s maturing as it moves and will reach peak intensity on Sunday, and when that happens it will be sitting right on top of us.”
Queensland Parks and Wildlife urged people to reconsider plans to visit national parks in the state’s southeast during the wild weather.
There are significant risks to visitors from flooded creeks or falling trees.
“Even usually benign activities such as walking, hiking or mountain bike riding could become extremely dangerous,” Acting Senior Ranger Jessica Rosewell said.
“It’s not only visitors subject to these significant risks … it’s also emergency crews who may have to go out and try to rescue someone if they’ve got stuck because of a flooded creek or a tree comes down on them.”
-with AAP
