Rainfall records broken as unseasonal rain saturates north west Queensland

More than 78mm of rain fell across Mount Isa in the 24 hours to 9am on July 3 with Mount Isa Mines recording 83mm in what was an unseasonably wet weekend.

It was the wettest July day on record in Mount Isa since 1986, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, when 71.2mm of rain fell.

The May Downs weather station also smashed the records with 101 millimetres falling since 9am Sunday, making it the wettest place in the state.

Julia creek received 79 mm while in Cloncurry 64 mm had fallen since 9 am on Sunday morning.

AgForce Cattle president and Cloncurry grazier Peter Halls said the rain was a mixed blessing.

"It's hard to describe what sort of impact this rain will have," he said.

"Most of north western Queensland had a terrific body of summer grass, but that had all ripened off and matured and when you put this sort of rain on it, it washes the protein out and damages the lighter grasses.

"There will be some good out of it because it will increase the moisture profile again and get the Mitchell grass growing again but it will destroy the Flinders grass.

"We have mixed feelings about it, it will do a lot of damage to the dry feed but the moisture should bring forth a bit of growth."

As the rainband starts to clear over north-west Queensland it will continue over Charleville and Longreach today with both expecting more rain over the next 24 hours.

Bureau meteorologist Livio Regano said western Queensland will get some decent rain over the next 24 hours.

"In Longreach and Charleville it will rain all day today, we are probably looking at around 15 - 20 mm over the next 24 hours," he said.

"Tomorrow most of the rain should clear during the morning and it should be clear for the rest of the week."

Mr Regano said that there were more heavy falls expected tomorrow for other parts of Queensland.

"Tomorrow should be a wet day for places between Townsville and Richmond and even down to Mackay, those places will get up to 50mm and some isolated places may get up to 100mm," he said.

"This rain band is like an alien creature, it's not just moving but it's also changing shape and intensity.

"The heaviest falls have already occurred, it is now moving eastwards and rotating southwards and it will end up contracting into south east Queensland."