Qld soaking up record December rain

(c)istockphoto.com/Jennifer Borton

TORRENTIAL rain has fallen across Townsville, breaking December's daily rainfall record set more than 30 years ago.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Brett Harrison said Townsville and its surrounds had experienced very heavy rainfall in the early hours of Thursday, with 305mm falling northwest of the city in eight hours.

In Townsville itself, 205.2mm had fallen on Thursday to 8.45am (AEST), breaking the December daily rainfall record of 160mm set in 1976.

"But it's well short of the annual record of most rainfall in any one day, which is 549mm," he said.

Mr Harrison said rainfall had now weakened over the city.

In southeast Queensland, the major dams will start 2010 in their best shape for a decade.

SEQWater spokesman Mike Foster said Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine dams combined were at 71 per cent capacity - 25 per cent fuller than this time last year.

However, Mr Foster said it was not due to the rain that had fallen over the region since Christmas Eve, which had lacked the intensity to flow into the dams, and had soaked into a catchment area instead.

The recent rain had delivered a modest 0.3 per cent increase to the combined dam level, he said.

A further 500,000 megalitres would be needed to fill the dams, which is between 180mm and 200mm of rain over five to seven days.

Further showers were forecast across the southeast, easing off during Thursday afternoon with a shower or two forecast for the evening.