Rain bombs and megaflash lightning: Australia experiences unprecedented weather

Australia’s east coast has been hit by record-breaking levels of rain over the past week with storms causing severe flooding and extensive damage to thousands of homes. 

Brisbane was one of the first areas to be hit over the weekend, with schools shutting on Monday as the Brisbane River reached its highest level since 2011. The amount of rain that’s fallen since last Thursday – more than 1.5 metres – comes close to the average annual rainfall for the region.

The weather system then moved south over northern New South Wales (NSW), with the state’s premier describing the weather as a “one-in-a-thousand year” event. Forecasts that the weather system is now heading further south have cast “an ominous warning for the Mid North Coast, Sydney and the South Coast”, said The Sydney Morning Herald. 

Trapped overnight

“The rain has been fierce and has continued, unabated,” said The Guardian, describing it as a “rain bomb” weather event. In the town of Woodburn, NSW, around 50 residents and their pets have been trapped overnight on a bridge as they tried to escape the rising floodwaters, the BBC reported.

Lismore, NSW, “is a community that has become used to flooding”, said The Guardian. “But this is not a flood, this is a catastrophe”, resident Sue Higginson wrote in the newspaper. “If you had a flood plan – which everyone on flood-prone land does, especially since 2017 – it was meaningless.” 

Lismore residents are experiencing some of the worst weather on record, and Higginson warned: “This is an emergency – a climate emergency.” 

Weather bomb

Nine people in Queensland have died, and the national death toll currently stands at ten. Many of the fatalities “were people who had attempted to cross flooded roads, either by foot or in a vehicle”, said Reuters. There have been a number of “close calls”, as residents have been stranded on their roofs or sheltered from the rain in their homes, said The Times.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the extreme conditions as a “weather bomb”, and reassured citizens that defence personnel are being deployed to lead rescue and recovery efforts. 

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/environment/955930/rain-bombs-megaflash-lightning-australia-weather