With more heavy rain forecast for the Northern Rivers area, and an initial flood watch now in place, you’d be sensible to think about what your flood plan is going to be, if you haven’t already done so. 

With 50mm of rain predicted for today and an unpredictable weather system leading into the weekend, Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecaster Helen Kirkup said, “it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the BoM warnings over the next few days”.

“BoM has issued a Severe Weather Warning for heavy rainfall - and the Wilsons River at the moment could see some moderate flooding,” she said. 

The NSW SES Lismore Unit’s message is “to stay calm, keep informed as the system develops and prepare for the possibility of flooding.”

“This is especially important for people in low lying areas or with stock that may need to be moved.”

Read more: Bureau of Meterology issues initial flood watch

Rainfall map over the past 24 hours. Source: http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/flood/northcoast.shtml

Ms Kirkup said the Lismore area will see heavy localised rainfall for the next few days into the weekend, but the heavy rains might move toward the south into next week. 

“If it does, the Lismore area will still see consistent shower activity,” she said.

“At the moment, there’s a broad weather system extending from south east Queensland. Easterly winds are bringing a lot of moisture across from a trough on the coast and focussing the rainfall on the Northern Rivers area - and a number of river catchments will be affected by this. 

“When we get these troughs, we can get embedded lows which can focus random high rainfall on certain areas - but there is good chance it will lessen over the weekend.

“Anywhere with thunderstorms could see localised flash flooding.

“Lismore could expect 50mm of rain today and 30mm on Friday, with less on Saturday, depending on what happens with the trough. Higher rainfall totals are expected on Sunday.”

Ms Kirkup said the BoM was keeping a close eye on a tropical low developing off the east coast of Queensland, which was being driven by easterly air streams.

“In the longer term, this could develop into a tropical cyclone – it depends how it develops – it’s hard to forecast because it’s such a broad weather system.

“We are still fighting fires down in the south,” she said. “I knew this was the land of drought and flooding rains, but I didn’t think we would see it in the same fortnight.”

Local river heights can be checked at http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDN60140.html#Wilsons_River

Flood and weather advice

NSW SES offers advice on what to do before, during and after a flood: https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/disaster-tabs-header/flood/

Lismore Disaster Dashboard (an initiative of Lismore City Council) has links and information to help stay informed: https://disaster.lismore.nsw.gov.au/

The Bureau of Meteorology has Warning Summaries: http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/warnings/

and the radar: http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR281.loop.shtml