Tennant Creek has continued to be inundated by heavy rains, as a large area of the Red Centre is temporarily dubbed the ‘Wet Centre’.
The town on the Stuart Highway has seen half of its average annual rainfall fall in the first 15 days of the year, with wild weather continuing.
The Bureau of Meteorology in Darwin’s senior forecaster, Graeme King, told the ABC that more rain was expected for another two or three days … and that the town’s annual average rainfall could easily be exceeded in January!
The 248 millimetres of rain that has fallen in Tennant Creek has already caused some flooding and presented some challenges to travellers.
The Northern Territory Emergency Service (NTES) issued a warning telling people to avoid flooded drains and waterways.
The flooding at Tennant Creek has been caused by a monsoon trough that went inland from northern Australia, bringing with it tropical moisture, Mr King said.
“The result of that has been that whenever a trigger shows up such as a trough or a low we get these heavy, slow moving storms, and that is what is happening here,” he told the ABC. “I think the fact that it is more than half its yearly rainfall in a fortnight suggests that it is becoming a pretty unusual event.”
· Have you been caught out by the rains in Tennant Creek? How are you coping? Comment below.
It is normal for Tennant Creek to get wet if there is a decent wet season. I for one am embracing the wet across northern Australia at the moment and wish I could be up there. I lived in the tropics for over twenty years and experienced some of the best wet seasons in the country, just love it!