Via ABC Brisbane: Wild weather increases across southern Queensland. Excerpt:
Brisbane is expecting minor flood levels as residents across south-east Queensland secure their properties ahead of the most intense 24 hours of this year's wild weather yet.
Ex tropical cyclone Oswald has picked up in speed and is continuing on its path down the Queensland coast, bringing damaging winds, heavy rain, flooding, tidal surges and even tornadoes.
The Bureau of Meteorology's Amber Young, say the huge tropical low is generating 'tonnes of moist air to the north, the south east and the south of [the] system'.
"[We're] seeing some damaging to destructive winds ... and quite phenomenal rainfall totals."
Ms Young says over the past two days the system has been very slow moving but is now speeding up and deepening.
"[It] situated itself over the Northern Goldfields, Upper Flinders district ... up around that Emerald area and just didn't having anything to move it along very quickly.
"As a result there was persistent rainfall up through the Capricornia and Wide Bay area, so places like Rockhampton and Gladstone and Bundaberg receiving persistent rainfall for at least 24, 48 hours."
She says the system picked up in speed to around 15km/h over Saturday night and is expected to continue increasing in speed as it contracts towards the south-east region of the state today, bringing intense bands of rainfall to the Wide Bay, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Gold Coast areas.
Rainfall figures up to 200 millimetres are expected to continue falling as the system moves south.
