Official readings for Kingaroy are taken at the Kingaroy Airport.

 94549  -  KINGAROY AIRPORT  -  151.8398°E, 26.5737°S, 434m ASL

KINGAROY Town  -  151.5072°E, 26.3232°S, 437m ASL

The rainfall ( in mm ) reported here is read from a commercial rain gauge mounted in the open on a post 2 metres off the ground at our home in Kingaroy itself, some 5km from the Kingaroy Airport.

In the pictures below, the  Bunya Mountains can be seen in the background. Spectacular storms form behind them and pass across the farmlands between Kumbia - which is a few kilometres from the foothills of the Bunyas - and Kingaroy.  

(The Kingaroy Airport is off picture about mid picture on the left side)

In my teenage years, around the mid to late 1960's, I saw the results of some of those storms.

In one storm, 6 inches / 150mm fell in less than 2 hours, washing a lot of soil off the cultivated paddocks.

(1) (Credit to Weatherzone - www.weatherzone.com.au )

Heavy rain and storms in QLD
Matt Pearce, 07/10/2003, 09:22

A broad cloud band stretches from NT to QLD, carrying in it heavy rain and isolated thunderstorms. The cloud is being generated by a trough system which is slowly moving out into the Tasman. The heaviest falls during Monday were in QLD where Kingaroy top scored with 58mm to 9am Tuesday. Elsewhere in QLD, Jimna recorded 48mm, while widespread falls of over 20mm were recorded in the southeast. In NSW Glen Innes received 30mm. Further heavy falls can be expected today throughout southeast QLD, with falls again up to 50mm likely. The trough and associated cloud should clear off the coast by Wednesday.

(2) (Credit to Weatherzone - www.weatherzone.com.au )

Windy and dusty in QLD and NSW
Brett Dutschke, 29/10/2003, 13:13

A deep low on Tuesday was generating very strong winds in eastern SA, western NSW and western QLD, gusting 53 kts at Broken Hill, 51 at Woomera, 49 at Wilcannia and 47 at Bourke. Winds were also causing severe dust storms and reducing visibility to 100m, such as Wanaaring. The low caused severe thunderstorms across southern QLD, NSW and VIC late on Tuesday, where some storms generated very strong winds. Charleville recorded a 54 kt gustand Roma 64 kt from storms. On Wednesday morning, the low caused westerly wind gusts of 54 kts at Mt Boyce, near Katoomba. Rain totals will be mainly less than 5mm due to a lack of decent moisture.

On Wednesday, the dusty areas look like being near the trough over northeastern NSW and southeastern QLD. Visibility at 200m in Coffs Harbour and 500 in Tenterfield and Grafton. Winds will ease during Wednesday as the deep low slips south to the Tasman.

Picture taken 11.00 am - 29/10/03 after thunderstorms around 11pm the night before.

The dust can be seen obscuring the Bunya Mountains.

The top wind gust recorded at the airport was 34 knots at 10.17pm. According to the BOM, the line of thunderstorms was moving through our area at around 100kph. There was a very good lightning show with the storms as well!

(Credit to Bureau of Meteorology - http://www.bom.gov.au)

(3) (Credit to Bureau of Meteorology - http://www.bom.gov.au)

The lightning in this storm was reminiscent of the type I saw in the 50's and 60's. There were at least 10 cloud to ground strikes in the town area close enough to me to cause the thunder immediately I saw the brilliant thick silver streak hit. I saw one strike no more than 5 blocks away that caused a mist or smoke to rise a few seconds after it hit ground. The rain lasted no more than 20 mins.

(4) Click here to see a short video ( 6 seconds / 560k/ .avi ) of the rain event at 1.25pm - 12-11- 03.

 (5) Below are a few pics of the storm which came in from the South East.

Click on the pictures for a larger view

As the storm started coming in from the South East

As it moved Westwards, South of Kingaroy.

A Sun Shower after the heaviest rain had passed.

That black spot is the sun, shining brightly from the edge of the clouds as the Sun Shower continued and the remains of the downpour ran down the gutter.

The back end of the storm as it headed Northwards.

Readings were taken at 9.00 am