Tropical Cyclone Koji crossing the coast right now between Ayr and Bowen, and that's bringing strong to locally damaging winds and also widespread heavy rainfall that is going to lead to widespread flooding in the coming days on top of what is already going on through parts of Queensland. So let's take a look at that in more detail.

Firstly, you can see a lot of cloud on the satellite imagery, and we saw it concentrate overnight last night, and that caused us an upgrade into a category two and then downgraded into a category one overnight and early this morning. We can see a lot of rainfall spiraling around the system, but it's a very lopsided system with most of the heaviest rainfall near and well south of Tropical Cyclone Koji. And that's why we're particularly concerned about our residents and communities, from around the Ayr and particularly Bowen area down through the Whitsundays and down into the Central Coast and inland of the Central Coast as well.

Since 9:00 yesterday, we've already seen falls in excess of 300mm around the Clarke Range area, with widespread falls of 100 to 200mm between around Bowen down towards Mackay. And that's led to already flooding of rivers, creeks and streams and some road closures as well.

But let's take a look at this cyclone in more detail. Right now, category one crossing the coast right now between Ayr and Bowen, and will move inland quickly and also weaken quickly as it does so. We've seen wind gusts in excess of around 80km an hour at Proserpine and Bowen, gusting to around 83km an hour there this morning. Hamilton Island has seen wind gusts of around 111km an hour as well. And these 80 to 90km an hour wind gusts is what we might see near and to the east of where it crosses. But those winds are pretty strong all the way down the coast as well. Mackay has seen winds gust to around 75km an hour as well. But as it moves inland, those winds will weaken. But the rain will continue for large parts of the central Queensland coast and then extend inland as this tropical low then moves inland towards inland Queensland.

So there's our current cyclone warning, but then in the next couple of hours we could see that be downgraded. But severe weather warnings do continue there and I'll show you that shortly. But let's have a look at all of this in more detail so you can see a lot of wind and rain, particularly near and south of where it's crossing, as has onshore flow winds bringing all that heavy rainfall to Mackay and extending inland to the Central Highlands and Goldfields, and also extending well south as well. We're seeing rain and showers as far south as Rockhampton and Gladstone.

Then as we move through this afternoon and tonight it weakens into a tropical low, and then that takes that heavy rainfall threat inland as well as that low moves westwards. So we're going to see that rain extend inland into the Central Highlands and Goldfields, and then even into eastern parts of the central west as well, particularly as we get into Monday and then on Tuesday.

And there's already a lot of flooding occurring through parts of Queensland, so this rainfall isn't good news for those flood affected areas. But for some areas that missed out last time, they could see some of that heavy rainfall this time.

So what does that look like in more detail? Well, we're likely to see widespread 50 to 150mm through large parts of central Queensland. But notice you can see there's a huge area of 100 to 200mm extending well inland through Moranbah, Emerald, and then even further westwards as well. And our coastal areas are likely to see a further 200 to 300mm of rainfall in the next 36 to 48 hours. We've already seen falls of 200 to 300mm, so we could see isolated areas, especially inland of Mackay, that could see 500mm total rainfall in the next 24 to 36 hours on top of what's already occurred.

So let's have a look at why we're so concerned about this rainfall. There are already so many flood watches and warnings current across much of northern and central Queensland, but it's essential parts of the Queensland coast that we're most concerned about. We already have a major flood warning on the Pioneer River, moderate flood warning for the Don River that will go into the Bowen area. And these purple areas show areas where we do have flood watches current, and that'll likely to be upgraded to flood warnings as we move into the coming afternoon and into tomorrow. The Burdekin Dam and also those areas could also see those heavy rain falls as well, so we could see some of those flood warnings being escalated.

And then as that rain moves inland, we could see the Thompson River, for example, they also could see some impacts there. But the heavy rainfall probably isn't going to make it as far west as the Flinders and western Queensland, where we saw that devastating flooding earlier this year. But we’re still likely to see showers and thunderstorms bringing 50 to 100mm there earlier this week.

And on top of all of this, once that cyclone does weaken, a severe weather warning is current and extends well inland from the Central Coast just to cover that continuation of those damaging winds and heavy rainfall. And notice it extends well south of Mackay, all the way down to the Saint Lawrence area and even into northern parts of the Capricornia Coast.

So if you live in this yellow highlighted area or know someone that does, today and tonight we're likely to see widespread heavy rainfall, and we could even see some damaging winds 80 to 90km an hour in this area. That's enough to bring down trees and power lines. But the main concern really is that heavy rainfall threat, for the Bowen, Ayr region all the way down through Hamilton Island and Mackay and extending well inland as well, where we already have minor, moderate and major flood warnings current.

So with all this rain and wind coming today and with Tropical Cyclone Koji crossing the coast right now, make sure you stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings. Stay home, stay indoors and stay off the road. And it's going to be a very wet and windy day through the Central Coast. Listen to all advice from your local emergency services, and you can get the latest forecasts and warnings via our website and app, and we'll continue to keep you updated here at the Bureau.