Australia Weather News

Australia's east coast has been pounded by rain, wind and surf for a week, with some of the highest rainfall in decades recorded through southern Queensland, includingBrisbane's highest daily rainfall in half a century.

Alfred made landfall as ex-Tropical Cyclone at about 8pm on Saturday. It is now pushing inland through southern Queensland, having transformed from a closed low-pressure system with tightly rotating winds into a low-pressure trough.

Despite a last-minute weakening before it hit the coast, Alfred's slow movement still generated some of the region's most extreme weather in decades.

So, just what has been observed in recent days?

Massive swell hits coast

One of the first impacts to be felt was the waves, as Alfred's offshore ferocity pounded the coast with waves as high as "three or four-storey buildings".

It included a12.3-metre wave on the Gold Coast, the highest recorded in 38 years of measurements.

While surfers made the most of the large swell in the lead-up to Alfred, the waves gouged millions of cubic metres of sand from about 500 kilometres of coastline between Coffs Harbour, in New South Wales, and Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Ex-Cyclone Alfred has caused beach erosion so extreme, it has left escarpments up to 6 metres high in some dunes, including on iconic Gold Coast tourist stretches.

Widespread flooding

For most areas, it was Alfred's deluge after it made landfall that delivered the most significant impact.

Overnight on Sunday, rain and thunderstorms brought widespread falls of 200-400mm across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Scenic Rim, and even into the Lockyer Valley.

It included a huge total of275.2mm in Brisbane's main gauge in the 24 hours to 9am Monday, making it the city's wettest day in half a century.

The last time the city had a higher daily rainfall total was in January 1974, the year of the devastating Brisbane River floods in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Wanda, when 314mm fell in 24 hours.

Parts of Hervey Bay and K'gari (Fraser Island) were also inundated after an intense, near-stationary thunderstorm formed over the area, dumping more than300mm of rain on Hervey Bay over the course of 8 hoursfrom early Sunday.

This included more than100mm in the space of just 1 houron early Sunday, helpingdeliver its heaviest daily rain in 70 yearsfor the region (a combination of four sites in Hervey Bay).

The Sunday deluge added to the enormous rainfall totals accumulating over the last five days since Alfred began to move toward the coast.

Upper Springbrook, in the Gold Coast hinterland, is now well clear of1 metre of rain for the past week,which is more than Brisbane's entire annual average rainfall.

Destructive winds

While some gusty winds are still being experienced, for most parts, the winds are now dying down as the system weakens and moves further inland.

The system still packed a punch on impact though, withpeak gusts to 120 kilometres an hour at Byron Bay, the town's strongest in four years.

The more shelteredCoolangattaweather station hit100kph — its highest in 21 years.

On theGold Coast, awind gust of 107kphwas recorded late on Friday and it tore the roof off a building in Labrador.

When will the rain be over?

The heavy rain is forecast to ease across south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales from Monday afternoon and evening, although more moderate showers will persist for a number of days, according to the latest forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).

This includes continued rain and thunderstorms through the two regions on Tuesday, potentially extending west into Warrego, and even as far south as the Hunter or Sydney metropolitan regions.

Senior meteorologist Christie Johnson said heavy rainfall in some areas was still possible.

"Locally heavy falls will continue to be a risk, with thunderstorms even into Tuesday, particularly over the Darling Downs," she said.

Multiple emergency alerts for ongoing flooding and thunderstorms are in place across the two regions.

By Wednesday, just scattered showers are expected, with the rainfall mostly easing by Thursday.

With a lot of water yet to make it through the river systems, the flooding impacts are likely to continue into the middle and potentially later parts of the week.