Rain eases after Wonga Beach downpour
Douglas Wet
Wonga Beach residents had one of their heaviest downpours of rain in years earlier in the week – but the wet is expected to ease back briefly to isolated showers with clear, sunny conditions in areas of the region over part of the weekend and early next week.
A couple of Wonga Beach households recorded 200 millimetres or more in their rain gauges, one as high as 210mm.
“Two hundred and two in Yarun Close,” one said.
Harry Clark from the Bureau of Meteorology said while there’s no official Bureau point in Wonga Beach itself, the heavy rain reports tie up with rainfall recorded at their nearest station – Whyanbeel Valley, which had 108mm in the 24 hours to 9am Tuesday.
“This rain is all part of the widespread active monsoon trough in the north,” Mr Clark said.
Wonga’s 200mm or so might seem high but when compared to area’s top daily record ever, it was really just a drop in the Coral Sea. Back in March, 1911, Mossman Mill recorded a whopping 743mm!
The area’s daily record for the month was set at the same location on January 28, 1969 – at 644mm.
But Port Douglas itself still holds the region’s biggest daily rainfall record of all time, and it was no April Fool joke: 801mm in one day on April 1, 1911.
Little croc closes beach
Weather might have helped cause a baby crocodile to become a bit more active on New Year’s Day, finding itself in the stinger net enclosure at Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas, which caused the beach’s closure.
But the beach was only shut for the minimum required four hours while the 70-centimetre junior croc was removed. The net was then reopened for the afternoon.