At 6.15pm on Monday 18 a change swept through the region, winds veered southerly, the barometer took a steep dive to 1000hPa, and conditions became ripe for a severe thunderstorm.  Although thunderstorms developed to the northwest of us and cumulonimbus clouds were overhead no rain was recorded at MWS.  Sixteen consecutive days have now elapsed since we have had more than 0.2mm splatter of rain. This matches January 1939, when the last time Maleny recorded a sixteen day dry spell.  Weatherwatchers are keeping vigil on ex-cyclones Neville and Olga, and if one or other travels down the east coast as a rain depression, it could mean a wet and windy end of the month.  Also, full moon will be at its closest perigee of the year bringing exceptionally high king tides and this together with heavy rainfall could cause flooding to some low-lying areas.

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Three more Egyptians died in flooding in the southern Sinai Desert, bringing the toll for three days of unseasonably heavy rains to 10. The arid region is unused to heavy rains which cause flash floods that can destroy homes and carry off livestock. Heavy wind and rains swept through parts of Egypt, Israel and Jordan on Monday, sweeping away homes, knocking out power lines and cutting roads. One motorist died in Israel and 10 died in Egypt, including a British tourist whose boat capsized as he was sailing along the Nile in southern Egypt

It is hard to imagine that only 150 years ago the Sunshine Coast was a land without roads and the inhabitants lived in a world without wheels.

In 1859, when the new state of Queensland was separated from New South Wales, the road north from Brisbane was extended and made good but only as far as Caboolture. Then when gold was discovered at Gympie in 1867, there was some sort of road from Caboolture to Gympie but this was often impassable in inclement weather due to deep mud. It was said the ‘road’ was often a quagmire, especially between Caboolture and Glass House Mountains. Wheels of drays were often buried to the axle in mud for a hundred yards at a stretch.

The first Cobb and Co coach from Brisbane to Gympie took place on November 12/13, 1868. The coach changed horses, about 10 times, consequently a good many horses and fodder were needed at the various stages of the journey.

Damage to the road was made worse by wheels of drays and coaches, and this prompted Caboolture Divisional Board to enforce a wheel tax to help with the  cost of road upkeep. A narrow three-inch tyre was taxed three times as much as a six-inch tyre, on the grounds that a narrow tyre cut the roads about more than the wider six-inch tyre. The cost of a licence for three-inch wheel was 17/6 per year. However, in some years due to drought and other hardships the tax was suspended. This happened in 1896, when the wheel tax collected in 1895 was refunded, and collection for 1896 suspended altogether.

Never-the-less, the idea of a vehicle licence was born and today we have the all too familiar and expensive ‘Rego’ allowing us to use Queensland roads.

On 24^th January 1974, a rain depression associated with ex-TC Wanda, caused torrential rain to fall during the last week of the month bringing the month’s rainfall at Maleny to a total of 1534 mm, five times in excess of the average and an all time record for the month. Falling as it did on the Stanley River catchments area near Maleny it contributed in no small way to the Brisbane Flood.

Flooding commenced of the Upper Stanley River on Friday 25th January and by Saturday the 26th, major flooding was also occurring in the Bremer and Upper Brisbane Rivers and the Lockyer Creek. The Brisbane River peaked in the city early on 29th January to become the city’s worst disaster this century

Twelve people were drowned in the Brisbane – Ipswich area; this figure is relatively low considering the extent of the flood and pays great tribute to the effectiveness of all emergency services.

Some 7000 houses were flooded in the Brisbane metropolitan area, many were washed away and others badly damaged by subsidence and landslides. In nearby Ipswich a further 1800 homes and commercial premises were inundated. The total damage was estimated at more than $200 million.

Eight days have passed since we had a good spell of rain. The 100 mm or so we had then failed to penetrate very deeply into the hard dry ground and we now need some continuous precipitation to combat the high evaporation rate we have at this time of year. The week’s weather pattern was slow moving with very little change in the synoptic situation. The monsoonal trough line drifted a little north, and one of its weak lows in the Gulf has a potential to become a tropical cyclone. Our hottest day of the week was on Sunday with 31.2°C at 1.30pm, recording a THSW Heat Stress factor of 39.8°C.

World weather news has been overshadowed by the devastating tragic loss of hundreds of thousand lives in the Haiti earthquake.

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The week produced some good falls of rain on six days out of seven, filling rain gauges with 115 mm. Most of this rain was due to a high in the Tasman Sea bringing the monsoonal rains down from up north.  However, Sunday was a rain-free day and the noise of mowers and ‘whipper snippers’ were to be heard all over town coping with the week’s vigorous growth of grass.  It is interesting to note the ground is still comparatively dry even after a wet week. So where did all the water go? After a long dry spell the ground was too hard to allow much penetration and there was considerable run off on water courses. Our moisture sensors at 20 cm underground are still indicating dry conditions exist. What a shame it is to see so much water going down concrete driveways and roads into storm water drains, without first getting a chance to soak into the ground and improve water table levels.

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                                              Soil Moisture Levels

Israelis headed for the beach at the weekend to enjoy a winter heatwave, with temperatures rising into the high 20s as much of northern Europe shivered in a cold snap.