Reading on Facebook that the Landsborough Highway is closed in two places.

0.6m over the road between Ilfracombe and Barcaldine
0.4m over the road and rising at Home Creek between Barcaldine and Blackall.

radar looks insane, but no rain in town yet.

Checking rainfall around the district, Oondooroo near Winton has had 81mm since 9am!

Winton itself had 68mm to 9am, and 3mm since.

I expect the river levels at Muttaburra and Camoola Park to show a big increase tomorrow given that this event is dumping rain all over the catchment of the Upper Thomson.

That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen!

Cant believe how much the river is up in emerald. It doesnt take long.

goodnight all, let's see what morning holds!

Hopefully not, although it will be interesting to see just how much rain is falling up there. A lack of BOM gauges on their website makes it hard to follow. ABC Western Queensland do a very good job of recapping rainfall each morning, so may have to listen in then.

7mm in Longreach, the rainbands have seperated and appear to be heading to the east and west of the town. Typical. Then again, I may wake up to another 30mm like last night!

IDQ20032
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
Queensland



TOP PRIORITY FOR IMMEDIATE BROADCAST
SEVERE WEATHER WARNING
for Heavy Rain.
For people in parts of the Maranoa and Warrego, Darling Downs and Granite Belt,
Central West and Central Highlands and Coalfields districts.
Issued at 10:50 pm on Wednesday 1 February 2012

Synoptic Situation:
At 10pm EST, an upper level trough was located near the western border of
Queensland. The trough is expected to intensify as it moves slowly east into
western Queensland on Thursday, thickening the cloud band and increasing the
rain currently occurring through the southern and central interior.

Heavy rain is expected on Thursday over the Central West district south and east
of Longreach, the Central Highlands and Coalfields district southwest of
Springsure, the Darling Downs and Granite Belt district west of Goondiwindi and
the Maranoa and Warrego district northeast of Cunnamulla.
Towns that may be affected include Mitchell, Roma, St George, Blackall,
Charleville and the Carnarvon Ranges. It is expected that this rainfall will
exacerbate the current river flooding situation and could also be quite intense
at times, leading to localised flash flooding. 24 hour rainfall totals in excess
of 100mm are likely.

Since 9am Wednesday, Oondooroo [near Winton] and St George have received 106mm
and 55mm of rainfall respectively.

Flood Warnings are current for various rivers and streams. Refer to
www.bom.gov.au/qld/warnings for further information.

Emergency Management Queensland advises that people should:
- Avoid driving, walking or riding through flood waters.
- Keep clear of creeks and storm drains.
- For emergency assistance contact the SES on 132 500.


The next warning is due to be issued by 5:00 am EST Thursday.

GFS has backed off a bit for us. Liking that!!

GFS has backed off a lot! So the trough is more western based and weakens as it approaches the highlands. Nogoa river upstream guages are all falling while the dam highwall and Emerald graph plots start to level out. Further troughs in the near future are much weaker than the previous. A nice breeze this morning or is it the collective sighs of relief from Emerald residents.

John Gay bridge will be closed for some time. Any visitors to Emerald (thinking mainly big wheels) especially from the south may be best to avoid the approach in the mornings and afternoon school times as there is a lot of stop/start with traffic control in place.

23mm overnight. We've had about a quarter of our 2011 rain in two days.

This morning, just over 9 and a half metres down at vince lester

It is certainly a sight!

Morning, yeah it sure does look like there is a fair bit of rain to come from what Nitso was saying in the update. Nice easterly breeze blowing here, 32deg in the shade, cloudy with some grey ones coming in now. Backyard still a boggy mess, need a couple more days of wind to dry it out...........

How much creedence do we place in GFS as it is constantly changing???
However saying that I reckon whatever they usually predict we are bound to get less anyone so that is very promising to allievate the potential for further flooding.

It's all happening here this afternoon.

Road closures in the Central West as at 4pm today as per RACQ

Winton to Longreach: Crawford Creek, Kelly's Creek, Oondooroo Creek, Darr River
Longreach to Muttaburra via Cramsie: Cassidy Creek, Bradley Creek, Marathona Creek
Longreach to Muttaburra via Crossmoor: Aramac Creek
Longreach to Ifracombe: Four Mile Creek
Muttaburra to Aramac: Closed at Landsborough River (headwaters of Thomson/Cooper)
Ilfracombe to Aramac: Entire 110km section closed, road bogged
Ilfracombe to Isisford: Closed
Ifracombe to Barcaldine: Christmas Creek, Collumption Creek
Aramac to Torrens Creek: Cornish Creek (headwaters of Thomson/Cooper)

Barcaldine to Tambo open with extreme care
Longreach to Jundah open with care (but not for much longer).

Hey Rawhide, I've been watching that dumping rain on the radar. That's a lot of closed roads. Passing light showers here have turned into heavier stuff here at Benaraby......

Cheers HFNQ....the BOM is now tipping a moderate flood peak for us over the weekend, but looking at the radar, Blackall and Tambo are going to be in the firing line from the Barcoo - a peak of 6m expected in Blackall tonight but so much more rain still falling in their catchment.

IMO when GFS start progging big falls consistently over many runs for 3-4 days or longer it is not something to ignore, and I am thinking they haven't faired to bad. Also have to remember those charts we look at are over 6 days. And think about how much rain has fallen in the catchment over the last week. And that is where gfs were progging most of our falls anyway. Always compare the charts and come to a conclusion in between.

http://forecasts.bsch.au.com/apf.html?region=cqld&start=1&stop=1&gribdate=2012020200
This is the gfs run for the next 24 hrs which is not impossible with the big falls in the west over the past couple of days.

Water over dam wall according to latest briefing 1.57m.