HEAVY rainfall drenched the Ipswich region last week flooding roads and causing locals to sandbag buildings in danger of inundation.
On Wednesday morning, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) released a major flood warning for the Bremer River and Warrill Creek catchments.
Rainfall totals of 70 to 120 mm have been recorded in the 24 hours to 9am Wednesday across the Bremer River, Warrill Creek and Lower Brisbane River catchments.
And motorists were urged to stay off flooded roads and avoid driving in the wet weather if possible.
BoM Senior Meteorologist, Laura Boekel, said more than 50 of BoM’s South East Queensland gauges had recorded more than 100mm in the 24 hour period.
“We’ve seen some significant rainfall overnight across large parts of Queensland, the focus is really in the South East however where we did see some really intense rainfall,” she said.
The weather system that caused the widespread rainfall had moved offshore by Wednesday morning reducing the potential for even higher flood peaks, however, showers and storms were reported during the remainder of the week.
Road closures
During the aftermath of the heavy falls more than 20 roads in Ipswich were closed or affected by floodwaters.
More than 1,000 sandbags were made available to the community by the Ipswich City Council from its Raceview depot and the SES depot in Rosewood.
River and creek levels
On Wednesday morning, moderate flooding occurred along the Bremer River with moderate to major flooding along Warrill Creek.
Ms Boekel said because the catchments were saturated the rivers and creeks were responding ‘incredibly quickly’ to any rainfall.
“We actually don’t need to see heavy or intense amounts to see impacts on the ground of flash or riverine flooding,” she said.
The Bremer River at Rosewood peaked at almost 5.5 metres which is half a metre beyond moderate flood level.
The Bremer River at Five Mile Bridge peaked near 6 metres and at Walloon reached a peak of more than 7 metres.
At Ipswich the river peaked below the minor flood level of 7 metres.
The Warrill Creek at Amberley reached a peak equivalent to moderate flood level.
Rainfall
Above average rainfall has been recorded throughout the Ipswich region so far this year.
At Amberley, a total of 165mm (6.5in) was recorded for the month of November. As of Monday, 1040mm (41in) had fallen since January 1.
At the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) alert station at Harding Street, 180mm (7in) was recorded in November. This brought the total rainfall so far this year at that station to 1048mm (41.25in) as of Monday.
At the BoM alert station at the Bundamba School, 194mm (7.6in) was recorded for November and the year to date total on Monday to 1117mm (44in).
The November rainfall at the One Mile Bridge was slightly lower with 154mm (6in) recorded in November. On Monday, the total for the year so far was 1051mm (41.3in).