At a Glance
- Heavy rains led to a cascade of beautiful waterfalls on Australia's Ayers Rock.
- Australia meteorologists are calling the deluge a 'one-in-fifty-year' rain event.
Heavy rains turned one of Australia's most recognizable landmarks into a beautiful waterfall garden just in time for Christmas.
Ayers Rock, known locally as Uluru, is a sacred Aboriginal site that towers above Australia's outback.
Usually dry, the red sides of the sandstone buttress, which is a World Heritage Site and reaches to a height of more than 1,000 feet above the otherwise flat terrain, became covered in waterfalls after what is being called a "one-in-fifty-year rain event" by Australia's National Weather Bureau.
The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, located in Western Australia, was closed to visitors Monday local time due to "an extreme weather event" but reopened Tuesday, according to Parks Australia.
While beautiful cascading down Ayers Rock, the water from the rains, unfortunately, caused flash flooding and property damage around the nearby town of Kintore, prompting the evacuation of nearly a quarter of its 400 residents, ABC Australia reported.
MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Australian Antarctic Festival Photo Contest (Sept 2016)
