Maleny Weather

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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