Belconnen storm clean up; Canberra's forthcoming weather predictions

The storm in Belconnen that hit residents on January 3 still has large trees and debris that fell all over in the suburb earlier this year.

In response to the scale of damage, Minister for transport and city services Chris Steel announced on Friday more workers will be allocated to the clean-up effort.

"More than 20 workers from the ACT Parks and Conservation Service have this week joined Transport Canberra and City Services' tree crews to help speed up the removal of trees and debris across Belconnen," said Minister Steel.

"As part of the additional capability on the ground, a dedicated storm response coordinator will strategically manage resources and ensure the most affected areas are dealt with as quickly as possible.

"The highest priority for our clean-up crews has been to make safe immediate hazards on public land and to clear roads, driveways and pathways," Minister Steel said.

While the government has introduced more workers, it is still expected to be a number of months before the suburb is fully cleaned and back to normal as confirmed by Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry.

READ MORE:

"The scale of the damage, as well as the need for crews to work in a COVID-safe way, means the recovery will take some time," she said.

"The recovery efforts may also be impacted by further storm activity, if crews are redeployed to address urgent safety issues following a future storm event.

"People in Belconnen will start to see signage installed throughout the suburbs and electronic signs on arterial roads indicating storm clean-up is ongoing."

As the clean up continues, residents across Canberra can breathe a sigh of relief for this coming weekend, as senior forecaster from the Bureau of Meteorology Jordan Notara says "everything seems quite stable" for the ACT.

"So until next Wednesday it's going to be in the low twenties. Generally 21 degrees tomorrow, 20 on Sunday and then around 21 to 23 on Monday and Tuesday," Mr Notara said.

"As we head towards Wednesday, we can start to see the wind to head a little bit more westerly as we go between Wednesday and Thursday, seeing temperatures increase.

"It's basically a stable weather pattern. The main thing at the moment would be if you are travelling from Canberra down towards the coastline, we are looking at an increasing swell on the forecast and as a result hazardous conditions."

In terms of storms and humidity, for now it is looking like there are none of the horizon according to Mr Notara.

"There's not actually a storm on the forecast over the weekend. It's basically just cloudy conditions with a very light chance of some showers about the region," he said.

"So at the moment we're really in a substantially drier, cooler period of weather in comparison to what we've been seeing, so less tropical influence but still maritime influence in the moisture."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: