Southeast Queensland is set to cop a drenching with more than 200mm of rain forecast as a huge slow-moving cold air mass settles in for the weekend.

December 12, 2020

Southeast Queensland is in for a wet weekend with a month’s worth of rain tipped to fall by Sunday.

More than 200mm of rain is forecast for Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine coasts from Saturday, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

Skies over the region darkened late on Friday as the massive weather system moved east and started bucketing down.

“This rainfall is the start of a significant weather event,” meteorologist Rosa Hoff told AAP.

“We’ve already had 93mm at the Sunshine Coast airport overnight.”

North Stradbroke Island’s rain gauge copped 80mm of rain and the Gold Coast recorded 30mm.

The heaviest rain is expected on Sunday with gale-force winds, dangerous swells and surf and flooding likely.

“It’s looking like some locations could see a month’s worth of rainfall, particularly on Sunday night, within a 12 to 18-hour period,” Ms Hoff said.

“Today has been the first signs, we’re expecting heavier rain to fall into Monday.”

A severe weather warning for damaging winds, abnormally high tides and dangerous surf is in place from Fraser Island to the NSW border.

A strong wind warning has been issued for mariners from Mackay to the Gold Coast, with gales of up to 40 knots possible.

Damaging winds with gusts up to 90km/h are also possible.

Big swells up to 4.5m are also expected and a flood watch alert is in place for low-lying areas.

Significant beach erosion in coastal areas is also possible into Tuesday when a new-moon king tide is forecast.

The 1000km-long and growing weather system moved east over the Great Dividing Range on Friday afternoon.

“The system is still amplifying. It hasn’t reached its maturity but it’s already coming across the Darling Downs,” meteorologist Livio Regano told AAP.

“It’s maturing as it moves and will reach peak intensity on Sunday, and when that happens it will be sitting right on top of us.”

Queensland Parks and Wildlife urged people to reconsider plans to visit national parks in the state’s southeast during the wild weather.

There are significant risks to visitors from flooded creeks or falling trees.

“Even usually benign activities such as walking, hiking or mountain bike riding could become extremely dangerous,” Acting Senior Ranger Jessica Rosewell said.

“It’s not only visitors subject to these significant risks … it’s also emergency crews who may have to go out and try to rescue someone if they’ve got stuck because of a flooded creek or a tree comes down on them.”