Rain on the Roads

Forecast rainfall on the long roads in and out of Birdsville — see rain coming before it cuts them, alongside the official road reports and weather warnings.

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About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Birdsville and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

Road

Last 2 days

Next 7 days

Birdsville · townThe town's own point — rain here on the local roads and airstrip.

1 mmalmost no rain

3 mma little rain

Birdsville Track (at Mungerannie)Roughly midway up the Track from Marree, in South Australia — a read on rain over the southern approach.

4 mma little rain

10 mma little rain

Windorah road (near Betoota)About 170 km east near the old Betoota pub — the eastern approach through the Diamantina channels.

0 mmalmost no rain

1 mmalmost no rain

Bedourie road (at Bedourie)North toward Bedourie and Mount Isa — rain over the Eyre Creek country the road crosses.

0 mmalmost no rain

1 mmalmost no rain

What this is — and what decides the road

These are estimates from a weather model on a coarse grid, not rain-gauge measurements, and they are not a road-closure warning. Whether a road is open is decided by the official road reports and weather warnings below — a road can be cut with little rain, or hold through a lot. Once a road is wet it can stay cut for days after the rain stops.

Worth knowing

Why rain, not the town, is the problem

Birdsville is on high ground and does not go under. What floods is the Channel Country all around it — the Diamantina, Eyre Creek and the Georgina spread out across the flat and put the unsealed roads under water or turn them to mud. Even a modest fall can make a graded track impassable, and a big wet can cut every road for weeks. Rain up the catchments also feeds the rivers, so heavy falls at these points can mean both a cut road now and a river rise heading for town in the days after.

How to use this before a trip

If the roads are showing rain, or rain is forecast, treat the trip as one that might not happen on schedule — check the official road reports below, carry extra fuel, water and food, and be ready to wait it out at either end. Once a road is wet it can stay cut for days after the rain stops, while the surface dries. This tool is the early look; the road authorities have the current call, and the town's river gauges show what's already coming down.

Rain on the Roads

About these tools

What this is — and what decides the road

The official word

Worth knowing

Why rain, not the town, is the problem

How to use this before a trip