A torrent of rain has inundated rivers and creeks in southeast Queensland during the last 12-24 hours, with more heavy falls on the way today.

A deep layer of moisture-laden air, interacting with a broad upper-level low pressure system and a trough of low pressure near the surface, caused exceptionally heavy rain over southeast Queensland on Thursday night.

The animation below shows the development of the heavy rain and thunderstorms during Thursday night and Friday morning.

Video: Composite satellite and radar from Thursday afternoon until Friday morning.

During the 24 hours to 9am on Friday, widespread falls of 100-300mm were recorded between about Bundaberg and the NSW border, extending from the coast to as far west as Miles and Goondiwindi.

The heaviest rain during this period fell over the Wide Bay and Burnett District, where a gauge at Old Range Road, north of Biggenden, registered a whopping 389mm in the three hours ending at 4am on Friday. Three-hour rain rates also exceeded 200mm at nearby Paradise Dam early on Friday morning.

This deluge inundated the landscape and caused intense flash flooding. The Perry River, a tributary of the Burnett River, rose by 10 metres in just five hours on Friday morning. The Burnett River itself is also experiencing moderate flooding downstream of Paradise Dam and may rise even further on Friday. A number of other creeks and rivers were also experiencing flooding on Friday morning.

This rain comes just two days after a separate bout of heavy rain and thunderstorms hit southeast Queensland earlier this week.

The combined falls from the last 72 hours have been phenomenal. A rain gauge at Pomona, to the west of Gympie, registered 785mm during the 72 hours ending at 9am on Friday. Other notable totals in this period included 671mm at Cooran, 603mm at Kin Kin.

More rain to come

The weather setup that has caused the heavy rain in southeast Queensland over the last 24 hours is complex, which makes it difficult to predict exactly what will happen during the next 24 hours.

More rain and thunderstorms will occur over southeast Queensland and northeast NSW on Friday into Saturday. However, exactly where and how much rain falls over the next day or two is uncertain and will depend in the position and speed of several synoptic features.

The image below shows how much rain one computer model is predicting during the six hours ending at 8pm AEST on Friday. It’s worth nothing that some other forecast models are not predicting this much rain, so uncertainty is high.

Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the six hours ending at 8pm AEST on Friday, February 25, 2022, according to the ACCESS-C model.

The most accurate and up-to-date information on this evolving weather event will be available in the severe weather, thunderstorm and flood warnings issued by the Bureau of Meteorology over the next few days, which you can find here.