Rocky gets wet with heavy rainfall

Melinda Siegmeier | 26th November 2009

ROCKHAMPTON has been blessed with its biggest rainfall in eight months.

It’s been a long dry wait, but Tuesday night’s 16.8mm was a small saviour for the parched Rockhampton area.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Rockhampton was one of a few lucky Central Queensland centres to get wet.

Overnight, Yeppoon received 3.2mm and Gladstone 12.4mm, while Emerald, Clermont and Springsure didn’t receive a single drop.

The last time Rockhampton saw more than a few millimetres of rain was on Sunday, April 5, with 26.6mm in one day.

The entire months of July, August and September had no rain at all, while October and May saw a sparse few millimetres.

Rockhampton Regional Council Water Committee chairman Cr Greg Belz also rejoiced yesterday in the region’s rainfall, but said water restrictions in some areas would remain in place.

He said the “divine intervention” came at the perfect time to bring relief to households struggling to maintain lawns and gardens in historic and extreme, hot, dry weather conditions.

He said the drought conditions had brought extremely high water use, which was unsustainable, and the council had been forced to implement water restrictions in some areas to safeguard water supplies through the coming summer, particularly for the Capricorn Coast and Mount Morgan.

“Restrictions that came into operation on Tuesday for Gracemere and Mount Morgan and the current restrictions on the Capricorn Coast will remain in force,” Cr Belz said.

“This is a sensible precaution because of the uncertainty of weather forecasts for the early part of our summer.”

The rain cleared up early yesterday, but is expected to return again early next week with light showers.

Where the rain fell across CQ last night according to the Bureau of Meteorology:

• Rockhampton:… 16.8

• Yeppoon: …3.2

• Gladstone: …12.4

• Emerald:… 0

• Clermont: …0

• Springsure: …0