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Outback Queensland bursting with green

Nearly two months after heavy rainfall which at some locations was the heaviest on record for March, the Queensland outback is bursting to life.

Satellite imagery shows vast areas of green that would normally be brown – even after an average summer period when most parts of western Queensland can expect a few decent falls.

The satellite image below shows Queensland this Monday morning. Look closely at the place names and you can see the town of Winton in the state’s Central West forecast district.

Image: Satellite view of Queensland at 10am on Monday, May 12, 2025.

We mention Winton because it received some of the heaviest rain away from Queensland’s coastal strip from the persistent stream of tropical moisture that soaked much of the state in late March and early April.

• For example, Winton saw rain on 13 of 14 days from March 23 to April 5, with a total of 354mm over that two-week period.
• In March alone, Winton received 316.6mm, which was nearly 50% more rain than had ever been reocrded in any calendar month.

The satellite image below is a close-up view of the far SW corner of Queensland. The dark green areas likely show vegetation in the rivers and creeks which have now discharged most of their water further south towards the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre basin.

Image: Satellite view of the far SW corner of Queensland at 10am on Monday, May 12, 2025.

The chart below represents the rainfall in statistical terms. It shows the rainfall deciles for Queensland in the first four months of 2025. As you can see, parts of western Queensland saw their highest rainfall on record over that four-month period.

Image: Rainfall deciles for Queensland from January 1 to April 30, 2025. Source: BoM. 

That map will likely be very different for May. Indeed, western Queensland has been drying out since April 5. Since that date (at the end of its record wet streak), Winton has received not a drop of rain. It’s a similar story in many other western Queensland towns.

But despite the sky taps turning off, a lovely carpet of vegetation will persist in much of western Queensland through the 2025 winter, in what is generally the driest time of year.