"Landphoon" drenches Tweed

Kingscliff rain watcher Robert Guthrie recorded 288.5mm of rain in February. Last year he got 345.5mm in the same month and the year before 350.5mm.

Crystal Spencer

A DOWNPOUR of up to 100mm, caused by a huge inland monsoonal low, was expected to hit the Tweed Coast last night.

The rain is expected to continue today as the deep low, dubbed a “landphoon” by one forecaster, moves south-east from western Queensland.

A severe weather warning was issued for a large area of Queensland yesterday, including the Southeast Coast, as the low moved in a south-easterly direction from near Birdsville.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Geoff Doueal compared the giant low to a cyclone.

“It’s quite an intense system – one of the most intense systems we’ve seen come through as these monsoon lows,” Mr Doueal said.

“It’s almost like a tropical cyclone over land.”

Fellow BOM forecaster David Grant said falls of up to 100mm couldn’t be ruled out for the Tweed Coast, but said the rain would be “very hit and miss”.

The monsoonal low has brought a wet start to March after a solid month of rain in February.

Murwillumbah’s Bray Park weather station recorded 332mm of rain over 20 days last month.

That was above the mean of 233.4mm but well below the record of 645.6mm set in 1973.

This February was the highest rainfall for that month since 2004, when 460.4mm fell.

Weatherzone predicts there will be a chance of rain every day between today and March 22.

Mr Grant said March was a traditionally wet month, and there would probably be further heavy rainfall as the season transitioned into winter.

Officially, the BOM has forecast a 50 per cent chance that autumn, which stretches from March to May, will have rainfall above its long-term median levels on the Tweed Coast.

Our video, contributed by Conal Healy, shows the conditions at southern Gold Coast beaches this morning.

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