‘Huge’ amount of rain to hit already-soaked region

Two tropical lows are bringing a “huge” amount of rain to northern Australia with a wet weekend to come.
A cyclone threat remains for north Queensland from the weather systems lying off Cairns and the Gulf of Carpentaria, which have brought torrential rain in recent days.
Another two tropical lows are off Western Australia’s north coast, one with the potential to form a cyclone by Sunday.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury warned it would be a very wet end to the week for the north tropical coast stretching up to Cape York and over to the Gulf country.
The area between Mackay and Cairns was expected to be hit on Friday by severe thunderstorms with locally heavy falls.
“These areas have already seen a huge amount of rain so far this week, and additional rainfall is likely to lead to further flash flooding, inundation of roads, leading to lengthy detours, as well as damage to some property and vegetation,” Bradbury said.
Rain was expected to ramp up between Cairns and Bowen from Friday night with the risk of life-threatening flash flooding and damaging winds.
“This risk will continue into the weekend with high rainfall amounts of several hundred millimetres, likely on a daily basis,” Bradbury said.