Ballina sits on Australia’s subtropical east coast, where La Nina years can bring extended, severe rainfall and flooding, most dramatically during the catastrophic 2022 floods that devastated this stretch of coast.
On the Richmond River in northern NSW, the city was heavily affected by the same 2022 flood event that devastated nearby Lismore. Ex-tropical cyclones and slow-moving coastal low-pressure systems (sometimes called east coast lows) can both stall over the region and produce rainfall totals well beyond what typical storms bring, making radar tracking of these systems especially important for anticipating fast-rising rivers. Learn more: Flash Flood Warning Signs on Radar · Open the full Rain Map