Rain has pounded parts of North Queensland today and a severe weather warning remains for much of the coast, with further heavy falls and flash flooding expected over the weekend.

The Bureau of Meteorology reported significant rainfall totals in the Townsville area in the six hours to 4.30pm including 234.0mm at North Ward, 225.0mm at Deeragun and 199.0 mm at The Lakes.

“There has been extensive flash flooding in Townsville itself. Lots of road closures, public transport closures, delays and disruption there,” BOM senior meteorologist Angus Hines said.

“And we’ve also seen the rivers around Townsville and more broadly across the entire Herbert and Lower Burdekin region and the southern part of the North Tropical Coast start to swell.

“We’re seeing those river levels start to rise and there are a number of flood warnings in place for different rivers across that part of the country, including a major flood warning for the Bohle River.”

And he said the wet weather was showing no real signs of clearing up across that part of the country.

“It’s going to be a very wet weekend around Townsville, but also a little further north up the coast there in Queensland with the heaviest rain likely to fall on communities between Townsville and Cairns, several hundred millimeters of rain over the course of the weekend.

“There is a severe weather warning in place covering that entire stretch of the coast for further heavy rainfall, not just tonight, but throughout the day on Saturday, and then likely throughout the day on Sunday as well, with the weather continuing into early next week.

“So lots more rain on the way for these areas which are now saturated, and we’re likely to see really significant flooding across that coastline over the next at least two or three days.”

The Townsville Local Disaster Management Group (TLDMG) had moved to ‘lean forward’ mode this afternoon as rain intensified across the region. 

“Advice from the Bureau of Meteorology has indicated that Townsville will continue to receive heavy rain throughout the rest of today and into the weekend,” TLDMG chair Andrew Robinson said.

“What this means for our community is that there is localised flooding and this flooding will continue into the weekend.”