Thunderstorms adding to wet August in Queensland
Brett Dutschke, Monday August 29, 2011 - 13:16 EST
Eastern Queensland is having a thundery end to winter, giving many locations their wettest August in more than a decade.

Parts of southeast and central Queensland have now doubled their monthly average.

St Lawrence, in Capricornia, now has more than four times their monthly average of 23mm. Their 93mm so far this month makes it their wettest August in 13 years. The city gained 58mm from storms on Sunday, their heaviest downpour in five months and heaviest August downpour in 13 years. In 1998, August records were broken in St Lawrence - 80mm in a day and 218mm in the month.

Nearby, the weekend's storms have helped Rockhampton to 64mm this month, 36mm more than average. This makes it their wettest August since 1998, when a record 228mm fell.

Further south, Maryborough, Maleny and Mt Tamborine have all doubled their monthly average, gaining more than 100mm.

These areas could see further storms in the next few days as a trough lingers, adding to the already wet month.

A side-effect of this storm-bearing trough is hot, dry winds in the northwest of the state, producing the highest fire danger of the year. Fire Danger has reached the severe category in Burketown and Julia Creek.