Tropical storm prompts life-threatening flash flooding warning in Australia

Sydney, March 6 (IANS) A severe weather warning for dangerous flash flooding has been issued in Australia's Queensland as a tropical low storm system approaches the state's northeast coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said in the warning that the tropical low was expected to bring intense rainfall to a 350-km stretch of coast in Queensland's tropical far north from Friday morning.

"Locally intense rainfall, which may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding, is possible this morning," it said.

The warning area includes the northeast coastal cities of Cairns, Port Douglas, and Cooktown, which have a combined population of around 255,000 people.

The BoM said that forecasts predicted six-hourly rainfall totals of up to 240 millimetres (mm) in the region and 24-hourly falls of up to 300 mm.

Forecasters previously warned that the tropical low had a 45 per cent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone as it approached the coast, but had revised it down to a five per cent chance as of Friday morning, Xinhua news agency reported.

The BoM said on Friday that the storm was expected to make landfall near the small town of Cardwell, but that the heaviest rainfall would hit further north, closer to Cairns, Port Douglas and Cooktown.

Earlier on March 2, emergency warnings for life-threatening flash flooding had been issued for vast areas of the southeast Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales (NSW).

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) had issued severe weather warnings for heavy and locally intense rainfall across regions in central and northern Victoria and south and southwestern NSW.

It had said that six-hourly rainfall totaling up to 100 mm was possible on Monday across the warning area spanning over 650 km from the central Victorian town of Seymour to the outback mining town of Broken Hill in far western NSW.

The State Emergency Service branches in Victoria and NSW had advised people to avoid driving through floodwater and to stay away from waterways.

Flood watch updates issued by the BoM for both states on Sunday said that more than 20 catchments were likely to be affected by the heavy rainfall event.