The first Queensland cyclone of the 2012-2013 season, Oswald, has been hanging round in the Gulf for the last few days. It’s not a big one and we’re a long way away from it but we’re still feeling some of its effects: gusty winds (up to 50-odd kmh), dramatic skies (no more of this boring all-blue-all-day!) and a bit of rain (about 25mm in the last week).
Most of the action is further north, of course – Cairns has had 70mm and Cooktown has had 130mm in the same timeframe – and our weather radar has very often looked like this:
That is, rain anywhere north of Paluma and only showers for us. We don’t mind at all.
The forecast at this stage is for the ex-cyclone to drift south, bringing more wind and rain to the south-east gulf and the Cairns and Tablelands regions. Again, we’re on the fringe and will get a bit of rain but not too much. Here’s hoping!
Things have already started greening up out my way, just with the showers we’ve had in the last couple of weeks. Looking forward to some decent falls though.
Update, 24.1.13: We got our share of rain yesterday and last night – about 200mm, we think, mostly between lunchtime and 11pm. The banana patch flooded, as it always does with heavy rain, but we had no real problems.
The rain is now gradually moving off to the south, and I doubt that we’ll get much more for a while.