"Once-in-a-century" flooding in Australia's tropical northeast has forced thousands of people to leave their homes. Forecasters have also warned that more rain and thunderstorms are on the way.
Image: Reuters/Stringer
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Emergency services in the northeastern state of Queensland helped more than 1,100 people evacuate their homes overnight after authorities opened the floodgates of an overflowing dam.
Torrential rains over the past week have inundated houses, caused mass power outages, forced school and airport closures, and even brought crocodiles out onto the street.
The heaviest rainfall has been recorded around the coastal city of Townsville, where evacuation efforts were continuing on Monday.
"Once in a century event happening here. I have never seen the likes of this before," Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told public broadcaster the ABC.
Local emergency workers ferry Townsville residents out of flood-affected parts of the cityImage: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Rankin
Rescue workers and military personnel carried out 18 swift water rescues overnight.
"Small boats worked through the night to evacuate members of the community," said local commander Brigadier Scott Winter.
Record rains
Townsville has just experienced its wettest week on record, with a total of 1.16 meters (3.8 feet) of rainfall over the past seven days.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said the downpour would continue on Monday, and that "destructive winds with intense thunderstorms may develop, with wind gusts above 125 kilometers per hour (77 miles per hour)."
Emergency workers in boats help a man leave his flooded homeImage: Reuters/Stringer
Floodgates open
Authorities were forced to open the spillway gates of Townsville's swollen Ross River Dam late Sunday, causing flash flooding downstream and leaving low-lying parts of the city underwater.
As of Monday morning, the Ross River Dam was still at 229 percent capacity.
Townsville disaster coordinator Steve Munro told the ABC that up to 20,000 homes were at risk of flooding.
BOM meteorologist Dean Narramore said more heavy rain was forecast before conditions ease.
"Some locations [are] approaching the yearly [rainfall] average in just a week," he said. "Over the next three days the monsoon trough and low isn't expected to move anywhere. We're expecting to see heavy falls continue."
Just wild weather or climate disruption?
A record heat wave across southeastern Australia, flash floods in Queensland and evacuations in California, Chicago thawing after being frozen stiff by a sudden icy "arctic vortex": Just normal, or out of the ordinary?
Image: Getty Images
'Rossby waves' unlock weather puzzle?
"Breakthrough" insights into atmospheric dynamics are emerging from "high-maths" —scrutiny of satellite data, say scientists. Their Nature magazine article identifies "significant connections" between extreme rain events, often far apart. Their premise: global rainfall distribution stems "probably" from planetary waves named after the late Swedish-born American meteorologist Carl-Gustaf Rossby.
Image: Getty Images/Bettmann Archive
Deluged in Townsville, Queensland
Normally, monsoon rains over northern Queensland last a "few days," says Australia's Bureau of Meteorology. Unprecedented downpours began a week ago, with more forecast and troops sent to a disaster zone. Evacuations have included these residents of Rossela, near Townsville, and German and Swiss tourists plucked from the Diamantina River catchment by a local farmer using his private helicopter.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Rankin
Tasmania scorched, wildfires
Wildfires have scorched swaths of Tasmania, offshore from continental Australia's Victoria state, where residents last month faced a record heat wave. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) blames the trend partly on record-warm southern Tasman Sea temperatures that have blocked rain-bearing cold weather fronts. These flow normally west-to-east under Australia toward New Zealand.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tasmania Parks And Wildlife Service
Denuded California braces for Pacific storm
Its hills denuded by recent drought-induced wildfires, California's central coast braced Saturday for another Pacific storm, with heavy rainfalls forecast. Santa Barbara County ordered evacuations from areas still clogged by past fire debris. Avalanche warnings were in place on the Sierra Nevada, loaded with snow from storms in January.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Vogel
Chicago thawing
The US Midwest, including Chicago, is thawing after a sudden two-day arctic vortex chill. At least 18 people died. Normally, the icy air mass swirling over the darkened North Pole during the winter stays ringed by the polar jet stream at about 60 degrees north. Stream weakening was also behind the prolonged 2018 European summer drought, according to Potsdam's PIK climate institute.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMAPRESS.com/J. M. Osorio
Monsoon rains, Indonesia
Indonesia, like much of Asia, weathers annual monsoon rains. Last Tuesday, the Sulawesi islands counted its toll: at least 70 people were killed as rivers burst their banks and landslides buried village homes. Authorities said a state of emergency would remain in place until February 6.
