Extreme weather events (days with ‘very heavy rainfall’)
Key Finding
While days with ‘very heavy rainfall’ are rare in parts of south-western Queensland, they are common along Queensland’s north-eastern seaboard.
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Queensland
Days with ‘very heavy rainfall’ are classed as days with at least 30mm of rain.
Days with very heavy rainfall are relatively common along Queensland’s north-eastern seaboard and in the Gulf, being areas which have greater exposure to rainfall associated with the northern Australian Monsoon and tropical cyclones.
In arid south-western parts of Queensland, days with very heavy rainfall are quite rare.
- Very heavy rainfall happens in Birdsville only 1 day per year on average, and some years have had none (e.g. 1933 to 1938).
Long-term variability and trends
Statewide and point-location assessments of long-term trends in days with very heavy rainfall are complicated, due to the impact of site changes, incomplete datasets, and a low number of high quality recording sites from which data are available.
Palmerville
Based on the 1900 to 2015 period, the average number of days per year with very heavy rainfall is 10.
In 1913, 26 days with very heavy rainfall were recorded.
Insufficient data was available for most years from 2009 to 2019.
Burketown
Based on the 1900 to 2015 period, the average number of days per year with very heavy rainfall is 7.
In the year 2000, there were 19 days with very heavy rainfall.
South Mossman
Based on the 1915 to 2010 period, the average number of days per year with very heavy rainfall is 20.
In the year 2000, 39 days with very heavy rainfall were recorded.
Insufficient data was available for 2011 to 2019.
Birdsville Police Station
Based on the 1900 to 2005 period, the average number of days per year with very heavy rainfall is 1.
In 1916, there were 6 days with very heavy rainfall.
Insufficient data was available for most years from 2006 to 2019.
Fairymead Sugar Mill
Based on the 1910 to 2009 period, the average number of days per year with very heavy rainfall is 9.
In 1950, there were 17 days with very heavy rainfall.
Insufficient data was available from 2010 to 2017.
University of Queensland, Gatton
Based on the 1900 to 2015 period, the average number of days per year with very heavy rainfall is 6.
The years 1906 and 1967 both recorded 11 days with very heavy rainfall.
There were only 2 days with very heavy rainfall over the 2-year 2018 to 2019 period.
Cunnamulla Post Office
Based on the 1900 to 2015 period, the average number of days per year with very heavy rainfall is 3.
In 1956, there were 11 days with very heavy rainfall.
The period from 2013 to 2019 had a lower than average frequency of days with very heavy rainfall.
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Metadata
The frequency of days with ‘very heavy’ rainfall at selected weather stations were calculated from Australian Bureau of Meteorology High-Quality rainfall datasets. All datasets were current as at February 2020. Subsequent updates to data may result in minor changes to some values. For each location the number of days per year with ‘very heavy’ rainfall are plotted for the extent of the High-Quality Dataset records. Years with more than 5 days of missing data are not included. Rolling 10-year averages are plotted only if there are 10 consecutive years of annual data.