05:17

In a 10-day period, Townsville has received more than its annual average rainfall and broken records for its longest running period of days above 50mm of rain.



The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has described the floods as “unprecedented”, but what is behind the weather that has dumped more than two metres of rain in some areas?

The immediate cause of the torrential rain, says the Bureau of Meteorology, is a monsoonal trough that has been sitting in one spot for more than a week.

“This weather pattern brings a lot of rain and usually flooding rain over northern Queensland,” said Vinord Anand, a forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology.

“The last several days, all of the intense rainfall we’ve seen in that area has been due to that weather disturbance.

“The only thing different with this one is it’s been sitting in the same spot for a long time. What that means is the rain has continued to fall in the same spot for five to seven days.”