A flood watch for Cairns has been cancelled, though meteorologists are still predicting a “miserable-looking” couple of days.

The initial flood watch, issued yesterday by the Bureau of Meteorology, covered a large area spanning coastal catchments between Cairns and Gladstone, and inland to parts of the Burdekin and Fitzroy catchments. The updated watch, issued this afternoon, extends south of Tully.

But while we won’t have to stock up on sandbags, the cancellation of the flood watch doesn’t mean TNQers can hang up the umbrellas just yet, with persistent rain predicted until the end of the week.

“It’s going to look like a winter’s day in Melbourne, just 20C warmer,” duty forecaster Bill O’Connor told TropicNow.

“It’s going to be that miserable-looking, constant light rain with low cloud.”

Mr O’Connor said there would be in increase in shower activity come tonight, with the heavier rains persisting into Thursday before easing into Friday and the weekend.

He said the Cairns area could expect rainfall totals between 20-30mm, while southern areas including Babinda and Innisfail could receive up to 100mm.

The current watch for the more southern regions of the state includes predictions of rainfall totals of 100-200m between today and Friday, with isolated heavier totals up to 400 mm possible.