Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred: tracking rainfall and wind speeds

As ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred neared Australia’s coast, thousands across New South Wales and Queensland sheltered from the wild weather, with hundreds of millimetres of rain this week.

This map shows the total rainfall at weather stations over the past seven days, and will be updated regularly throughout the weekend. A darker shade of purple indicates higher rainfall.

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By Sunday 9.15am AEST, several river systems in northern NSW and southern Queensland had flood warnings, including the Wilsons river at Lismore, the Tweed, the Richmond and other rivers in northern NSW, as well as a number of rivers in south-eastern Queensland, including the Logan and Bremer.

This map shows the current areas either at risk from by flooding and storm conditions, or those currently affected by flooding and storms:

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We can see the scale of this rain by comparing it to historical records. Many of these areas had previously been experiencing a dry-ish year. Before the cyclone-induced rain, weather stations in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast had seen cumulative rainfalls at less than half (median) of historic levels.

You can explore more in the chart below. It will be periodically updated throughout the weekend.

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Here, we’re tracking the wind speeds at five locations in northern NSW and southern Queensland:

Notes and methods:

• Historic rain levels calculated using the Bureau of Meteorology’s long-run climate data for each weather station

• Historic rain data was grouped by the day of the year before the 10th and 90th percentile were calculated

• Rain records for 29 February have been removed from the data to ensure consistency