Todd River flowing, cattle stations cut off as rain drenches central Australia
The Todd River has started flowing in Alice Springs for the first time since April 2014 after heavy rain drenched central Australia.
The river, which is usually a dry, sandy river bed, started flowing after parts of the catchment recorded more than 100 millimetres of rain in 24 hours.
At Alice Springs airport, 56.6 millimetres was recorded in the 24 hours to 9am (ACST) on Thursday. A further 15mm had been recorded by 4pm.
Arltunga, east of Alice Springs and in the Todd River catchment, had 100.2mm.
Several other weather stations in the catchment had falls greater than 50mm.
But that was nothing compared to the 103.1mm recorded at Calvert Hill Station in the Gulf of Carpentaria region.
Adam Morgan from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said the heavy rain was the result of a deep tropical low moving towards central Australia from the Kimberley region of Western Australia, meeting humid air from the monsoon trough over the Top End.
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