Australia’s east coast has been drenched with record-breaking rainfall, causing floods that have submerged major cities including the Queensland state capital Brisbane, killed at least 16 people, and wreaked major devastation across both Queensland and New South Wales.
Around 90 centimeters of rain fell in the space of one week on some areas of the coast, with 61 cm on the city of Brisbane in just three days. Combined with a high tide, the Brisbane River flooded and inundated around 15,000 homes. Further south, the northern New South Wales town of Lismore received 70 cm of rain in just 30 hours, which sent the Wilsons River surging over its levee bank and broke its previous high-water mark record by 2 meters.
The heavy rainfall is likely the result of a so-called atmospheric river that transports moisture-laden air from the ocean and across the northern east coast. The rainfall is arriving ...
