Community News
Flood Warning for the Nepean, Hawkesbury and Colo Rivers
Update to mention the latest warning from the BoM (http://www.bom.gov.au/…/nepean-hawkesburyrivers.shtml) which is now predicting river levels possibly exceeding all three of the recent floods (March 2021, March 2022, April 2022) [at North Richmond at least]!
This warning revises possible peaks up to 15.0m and 13.3m at North Richmond and Windsor respectively as well as upgrading flooding predictions downstream to Major levels.
This is likely due to the forecast predicting renewed rainfall from the East Coast Low moving.
We are also seeing rises now in the Colo and Macdonald rivers too which as we know exacerbates flooding in the lower Hawkesbury River and enhances the “bathtub effect”, where water cannot escape the floodplain fast enough through the narrow gorge downstream causing a bank up of water. Further rises are possible if the ECL tracks south and close to the coast and lingers.
In spite of this, at the moment rates of rise are currently slowing down a bit and at least temporarily peaking as rain around the catchment and locally has temporarily eased and shifted north today.
The next 12-18 hours will be key and hopefully the weather will ease after that.
UPDATE 5:30PM – the latest BoM warning has clarified that they now expect river levels at Windsor to possibly also exceed the last three floods (although strangely still estimate 13.3m which is lower than March 2022 (13.7m) however downstream at Sackville and beyond they expect levels to be LOWER than March 2022.
