Updated ,first published
Brisbane’s unseasonal wet weather is causing woes on the city’s rail lines and roads, with flash flooding causing train delays and cutting off streets.
Trains on the Cleveland, Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines have resumed after flooding between South Bank and South Brisbane stations caused a signalling fault, but Queensland Rail was warning commuters of residual delays.
Trains on all three major lines were initially suspended, creating hour-long delays for travellers.
Services on the Beenleigh and Gold Coast lines resumed shortly before 3.30pm, followed by trains on the Cleveland line.
A massive north-west cloudband brought soaking rain to south-east Queensland on Sunday night that continued throughout Monday.
Flash flooding was impacting roads across Brisbane by Monday afternoon, with persistent rain set to dampen the city for at least another day before the low moves offshore.
More than 20 roads were affected by flash flooding, including the Bruce Highway at Griffin and the Margaret Street off-ramp in the CBD.
By 4pm on Monday, the large north-west cloudband had dumped more than 60 millimetres of rain on some parts of Brisbane, although most suburbs received between 20 and 40 millimetres.
Heavier falls were recorded at Burbank (61 millimetres), Chandler (45 millimetres), Aspley (46 millimetres) and Deagon (51 millimetres).
Redland City Council opened sandbagging stations in Thorneside, Cleveland and Redland Bay after more than 64 millimetres of rain fell in Alexandra Hills. Sandbagging stations were also opened on the bay islands.
An umbrella will remain a necessary accessory on Tuesday, but warm doonas and bed socks will be more useful from the middle of the week, as the skies clear and the insulating effect of the blanket cloud cover is lost.
Overnight temperatures are due to plummet from Tuesday, the weather bureau predicts, as the cloud band currently sitting over Brisbane dissipates.
Senior meteorologist Harry Clarke said Brisbane’s weather would remain bleak until Tuesday afternoon, with between 10 and 30 millimetres of rain expected across the city.
“There are, particularly towards the Gold Coast hinterland, higher falls than that expected … picking up 50 or maybe even 100 millimetres by the time this event is all said and done tomorrow,” he said.
“It’s not flooding rain, more moderate, but certainly the heaviest rain we’ve had in a while.”
Clarke said the cloud cover had an insulating effect at night, keeping overnight temperatures relatively warm.
“Once this system clears off Tuesday evening and into Wednesday we’ll get a burst of cooler, drier south-westerly winds behind it, so we’ll see a return to mostly sunny conditions,” Clarke said.
But nighttime temperatures could dip into the single digits.
The cloud band sitting over Brisbane on Monday – and spanning from the Kimberly region in Western Australia to the southern NSW coast – was bringing rain to the bulk of the south-east, as well as parts of western Queensland.
He said the “unseasonable” rainfall in Queensland’s west peaked at about 42 millimetres in Windorah, a town more than 1200 kilometres north-west of Brisbane that was hit with flooding in March.
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