Healthy winter rain has fallen in the drought-stricken Capricornia region of Queensland, with many sites in the region exceeding their average June rainfall.

A northwest cloudband has slowly crept over the region during the last 30 hours, producing the heaviest June rain in 5 years for Gladstone (55.6mm), Bundaberg (24.2mm), Yeppoon (23.4mm), and Rockhampton (16.2mm). Some light falls are also occurring on Sunday morning, adding an additional 3-8mm into the gauges.

Image: Satellite imagery and rainfall in the 24 hours to 9am Sunday

The combination between this rain event and one that occurred about 2 weeks ago, now means that the majority of the region has reached or exceeded their June average rainfall.  

However, the rainfall in Gladstone has pushed well beyond that threshold. With 125.8mm in the gauge so far this June, it's now their wettest June since 2007. Furthermore, they have now had ‘above average’ winter rainfall, with the average total for June, July and August equal to 102.2mm. 

These winter rains are very welcome for the region after the normally wettest part of the year (January and February) produced next to no rainfall earlier this year. In fact, only 5.6mm fell in the first 2 months of 2021 in Gladstone, a measly 2% of the normal average, and its second driest start to the year in 150 years of records (behind 2.2mm in 2017).

With the most recent rain, rainfall totals for the first 6 months of 2021 are now close to 50% of the average across the Capricornia region. This is a big improvement from earlier in the year, but much more rainfall will be required to break the drought.

Light showers are expected through the week, with some more widespread light-to-moderate rain arriving around Friday and Saturday.