Flood and severe weather warnings remain current for Queensland and New South Wales, despite ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred being downgraded to a tropical low.
Here’s what we know so far.
What’s happening?
The tropical cyclone reached the Moreton Bay islands in the early hours of Saturday, picking up speed but losing some intensity. It was downgraded from a category 2 tropical cyclone to a category 1 about 1am.
Widespread falls had already been recorded, ranging from 100mm to 200mm. Gold Coast seaway had recorded 132.8mm since 9am, and 153.6mm at Grafton airport.
The strongest winds were 107km/h recorded at the Gold Coast, and widespread gusts of 50km/h to 70km/h around the Brisbane metropolitan area.
What can we expect?
Alfred was expected to bring widespread heavy rain and gusty winds as it crossed the coast, between Maroochydore and Bribie Island on Saturday morning, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said Alfred had weakened to a tropical low in the last hour.
But while the winds had backed off, significant and severe weather warnings and flood warnings remained in place due to the rain, she said, as heavy rainfall with the potential for flash flooding was still expected across southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales.
“For Brisbane and the Gold Coast today is likely to be the wettest day,” Bradbury said.
What warnings are in place?
Severe weather warnings were current from Gympie down to Coffs Harbour, and as far west as Toowoomba and Stanthorpe in Queensland, senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said.
“This widespread rainfall will continue to further exacerbate the flood threat through much of south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales, which is of a concern with already many major flood warnings current in these areas.”
A number of flood warnings have been issued.
In New South Wales, these included major flood warnings for the Tweed, Wilsons, Bellinger, Richmond, Nambucca, Brunswick, Orara rivers and Marshalls Creek.
In Queensland, there were major flood warnings for the Bremer and Logan rivers and Warrill Creek.
Conditions weren’t expected to ease until late on Sunday or early next week.