Clean-up continues after tornado-like freak storm hits Brisbane

Fallen trees are still peppering a string of suburbs in Brisbane’s south-east in the aftermath of a sudden, intense storm on Thursday, with clean-up works expected to continue into the weekend.

The Bureau of Meteorology reported the storm – which produced damaging wind speeds, and pea-sized hail – was a “rapidly descending air in a thunderstorm that hits the ground and spreads out as a wind gust”, which is called a microburst.

“A microburst can cause damage over an area of less than four kilometres, with the strongest winds and greatest impacts occurring where the microburst first hits the ground,” a spokeswoman said.

Residents in Carina, Camp Hill, Carina Heights, and Carindale reported strong winds during a minutes-long storm that hit mid-afternoon on Thursday.Credit: Courtney Kruk; Marissa Calligeros

Residents and Brisbane City Council workers reported downed trees across residential and parkland structures, as well as yard furniture – including trampolines – lifted and thrown around backyards by the gale-force winds.

The bureau said microburst storms were not always accompanied by rain, and were sometimes mistaken as tornadoes.

“Both [microbursts and tornados] share a locally intense damage pattern, however, the two phenomena are quite different,” said a spokeswoman.

“A microburst only produces damage over a small area, while a tornado can produce damage along a long, narrow path.”

Residents and council workers reported damage to fences and buildings after gale-force winds downed trees in a freak storm on Thursday.Credit: Nine

Queensland Rail said services between Manly and Park Road/Boggo Road were suspended from about 2.30pm on Thursday after a tree fell on overhead lines about 200 metres from Morningside Station. Services resumed overnight.

Energex reported more than 216,000 lightning strikes across the south-east, concentrated on three intense thunderstorms on the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, and Brisbane’s south.

About 6100 properties immediately lost power about 3pm on Thursday, which doubled within hours, as repair crews arrived and “had to trip sections of the network for safety reasons” caused by debris on powerlines, Energex said.

Pea-sized hail hit suburbs in southern Brisbane on Thursday afternoon during a microburst storm.Credit: Courtney Kruk

The power supplier said 44 powerlines were downed, although power had been restored by 2pm on Friday after 28 crews worked overnight from Thursday to Friday to restore the network.

More than 40 council crews and hundreds of residents set upon the debris across Friday.

Holland Park councillor Krista Adams said parts of her ward – which spans from Coorparoo to Carina Heights – were “virtually untouched”, while others were littered with “significant debris”.

Other councillors in affected wards said clean-up efforts were continuing, and urged those affected to take advantage of the council’s free green waste drop-off period, ranging from Friday to January 27, at the Chandler Resource Recovery Centre.

On Friday afternoon, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced the council would collect an additional round of green waste bins in Carina Heights, Carina, Seven Hills and Camp Hill.

“While green bins in these suburbs had their fortnightly collection this week, we’ll be doing an additional collection next week on the regular day of service for any additional garden debris,” he said.

Council had a clean-up crew doing “rapid assessments” of damage and prioritising safety works around footpaths, roads, and parks.

“Council crews will continue prioritising safety jobs in parks and along footpaths and roads today and tomorrow,” he said.

In a letter to the council chief executive, Morningside councillor Lucy Collier called for a briefing to discuss extending waste-disposal efforts to include kerbside pick-up.

“In the past, Council have offered kerbside collection to assist with debris from freak storms in the suburbs,” she said.

“Not everyone has a car, ute, ability or the budget to pay someone to take their debris from the storm to the tip.”

Some residents expressed dismay online over the lack of warnings, but the bureau said it could only predict conditions likely to cause extreme weather events.

Microbursts can be mistaken for tornadoes because both types of storm produce strong, damaging winds. Credit: Nine

“The rapidly changing nature of thunderstorms makes it difficult to forecast their exact location with long lead times,” a spokeswoman said.

“The bureau supports targeted warnings with localised forecasts, briefings and public information in the hours and days leading up to an expected severe weather event.”

Brisbane City Council also provides an extreme weather update service for residents, with alerts issued via email, text, or voice message.

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