Several people rescued as floods impact north of the state

Two men had to be rescued by helicopter after they got stranded by rising flood waters just near Townsville.

The CQ Rescue helicopter had to winch them out in the very early hours of the morning and that was just one area that got significant rainfall overnight, all thanks to a monsoon trough.

That trough is strengthening and the low pressure system – which was once was Tropical Cyclone Koji – is also not helping.

It led to some big falls overnight, with Whites Hill near Townsville recording 92 millimetres, while Hamilton Island got 89mm in the gauges and Mirani, near Mackay, had 88mm.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) is warning this weekend we could see more heavy falls, particularly dangerous for areas north of about Mount Isa.

The BoM is also saying there could be some significant falls between Cairns and Mackay as well with some thunderstorms.

There’s also set to be thunderstorms in the south-east over this weekend, and the weather bureau is warning they could potentially be severe.

Major flood warnings are still in place overnight for parts of the state.

Also more wet weather forecast for NSW and Victoria, which have also seen heavy falls already this week and flash flooding.

“The low over the South Coast is relatively slow-moving, so the southern half of the NSW coastline can expect the heaviest rain and showers,” Weatherzone said.

Sydney’s set for its soggiest weekend of summer so far, with Weatherzone forecasting around 20mm of rainfall possible on both Saturday and Sunday.

And that rain’s likely to persist along the NSW South Coast for much of the coming week they say.