Severe Storms Attack Australia

BACK-TO-BACK DISASTERS CONTINUE TO HIT QLD, VIC

Vicious Storms Attacking Queensland

Australian Region Infrared Satellite Image

Queensland Warnings Summary

Current Warnings

• Coastal Wind Warning 1,
• Severe Thunderstorm Warning – Southeast Queensland 1,
• Flood Warning – Don River and Adjacent Streams,
• Flood Warning – Coastal rivers – Maryborough to Gold Coast,
• Flood Warning – Lockyer, Bremer, Warrill & Brisbane below Wivenhoe.,
• Flood Warning – Condamine-Balonne Rivers,
• Flood Warning – Macintyre/Weir,
• Flood Warning – Moonie River,
• Flood Warning – Thomson/Barcoo/Cooper Ck,
• Flood Warning – Gulf Rivers,
• Queensland flood warning summary.

Victoria Farming Disaster

Floodwaters have submerged at least a third of the Australian state of Victoria, inundating at least 62 towns and killing hundreds of thousands of poultry and scores of other farm animals. Floods have damaged a reported 1,730 properties, affecting at least 4,300 people.

Click Image to enlarge. Source: Victorian Farmers Federation, ABARES, via The  Australian.

Flood Headlines

Towns isolated as floods swamp Victoria

• New Victorian flood front ruins farm sector
• Flood-hit Kerang facing days of isolation
• Residents in Dimboola in northwest Victoria are being evacuated as the Wimmera River rises. Source

• More storms on the way for SE Queensland
• Severe storms threaten flood-affected areas
• Severe storms threaten flood-affected areas
• Monsoon rains intensify

Current Warnings

• New South Wales / Australian Capital Territory,
• Victoria,
• Queensland,
• Western Australia,
• Northern Territory.

Flooding in the Australian Interior

Click image to enlarge. Download larger image (8 MB, JPEG)

Click image to enlarge. Download large image (5 MB, JPEG)

Floods continue  to spread across the interior of southeastern Australia, namely in the states of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Both false-color images above use a combination of visible light and infrared to enhance the contrast between land and water. Water appears in shades of blue. The top image was captured by MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite on on January 20, 2011, the bottom image on January 22, 2010. Source: NASA-EO

Victoria Floods – Satellite Images

Flooding in Victoria – January 2011

Click image to enlarge. Download larger image (14 MB, JPEG)

Floodwaters continued to surge from Australia’s state of New South Wales to its southern neighbor Victoria on January 19, 2011 causing substantial damage to infrastructure and agricultural produce. These images use infrared and visible light to enhance contrast between land and water. Top image was captured by MODIS  on NASA’s Terra satellite on January 19, 2011, bottom image nearly a year earlier on January 20, 2010. Water shows in shades of blue.

Related Links:

• Australia Disasters Headlines

• Victoria Flood Update: 46 Towns Affected
• Australia: Back-to-Back Disasters Hit Vic
• Flood crisis spreads to 5 Australian states
• Global Floods Update – Australia
• Back-to-Back Australian Disasters [Links page]

• Earth’s Human Induced Antiphase Nears Completion
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs

Rockhampton Flooding – Satellite Images

Flooding in Rockhampton, Queensland

Image captured by ASTER on NASA’s Terra satellite – 7 January 2011

Click image to enlarge. Download larger image (3 MB, JPEG)

The image uses a combination of visible light and infrared to enhance the contrast between floodwaters and earth. “Reflective surfaces on buildings make the city shine white against a background of plant-covered land (which shows up as red). Sediment-loaded water is brown, while clearer water is black.” Source: NASA-EO.

Meanwhile, the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) in Queensland issued the following flood warning earlier today.

FLOOD WARNING FOR THE FITZROY RIVER BASIN
Issued at 4:00 PM on Saturday the 8th of January 2011 [IDQ20765]
by the Bureau of Meteorology, Brisbane.

Moderate to major flooding continues along the Dawson, Comet, Mackenzie and Fitzroy Rivers.

The Fitzroy River at Rockhampton has remained steady at about 9.15 metres during Saturday following a peak of 9.2 metres on Wednesday. Levels will fall veryslowly from Sunday. Rockhampton river levels are expected to remain above 8.5metres (major) until late next week.

CONNORS/ISAAC RIVER SYSTEM:
Moderate flooding continues to ease on the Isaac River at Yatton.

COMET RIVER:
Major flooding continues to ease along the Comet River into the weekend.

MACKENZIE RIVER:
Minor to major flood levels continue to fall along the Mackenzie River, where the main flood peak is now downstream of Tartrus. Levels will fall graduallybetween the Comet confluence and Tartrus.

DAWSON RIVER:
Minor flooding is easing slowly in the upper Dawson River at Taroom. Renewed rises are occurring downstream in the Glebe area with only minor flood levels expected. Downstream at Theodore, Moura and Baralaba, levels will continue to fall fast this weekend before small renewed rises and minor flooding during nextweek.

FITZROY RIVER:
Major flooding continues in the Fitzroy River at Riverslea. At 2:30pm Saturday the river level at Riverslea was at 26.22 metres and falling. Levels areexpected to continue falling very slowly through the weekend.

At Yaamba, flood levels continue to remain steady at 16.45 metres, following amajor peak of 16.55 metres recorded during Tuesday.

The Fitzroy River at Rockhampton remains steady. At 3:30pm Saturday, the river level at Rockhampton was 9.10 metres. River levels are expected to fall veryslowly from Sunday. Rockhampton river levels are expected to remain above 8.5metres (major) until next Friday.

Predicted River Heights/Flows:

DAWSON RIVER at:

Baralaba: Flood levels will fall but remain above major floodlevel (9 metres) until Monday or Tuesday.

FITZROY RIVER at:

Yaamba: Remain above major flood level for several days.

Rockhampton: Fall extremely slowly during the weekend.Remain above 8.5 metres (major) until late next week.

Next Issue:

The next warning will be issued at about 7am Sunday.(River heights are constantly updated on the Bureau website.)

For other entries including additional satellite images, click HERE.

BOM Links: CURRENT WARNINGS

NSW/ACT | VIC | QLD | WA | SA | TAS

Related Links:

• Queensland Floods Spread to NSW Posted on January 7, 2011
• Queensland Flooding – Satellite Images Posted on January 6, 2011
• Australia: More Severe Weather Looms
• Mosquitoes Plague Flooded Rockhampton
• Queensland Flood Update – 3 Jan 2011

• Nature’s DoS Attack on Australia
• Queensland Flooding: Disaster of “Biblical Proportions”
• Australia Flood Update
• Thousands of Australians Evacuate Flood-hit Queensland