Wide Bay region hit by massive storm, 20,000 lose power
A powerful storm producing more than 110,000 lightning strikes left its mark on the Wide Bay where some streets were still without power on Saturday. It comes as a meteorologist explains how rainfall varied across the region.
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An electric storm so bright it made the midnight sky appear as though it was midday has left its mark on the Wide Bay where some streets were still without power on Saturday.
A powerful storm swept through the Wide Bay region overnight, leaving thousands of homes and businesses without electricity and bringing more than 110,000 lightning strikes across Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Biggenden and Bundaberg.
An Ergon Energy spokeswoman confirmed that at the peak of the storm, 20,000 customers across the region were without power.
“This included 15,700 who experienced only a brief power interruption around midnight when lightning strikes tripped circuit breakers,” she said.
Crews were on Saturday working to repair storm damage in affected areas, with ongoing outages reported as of 9:30am.
Social media was abuzz with photos and comments about the lightning being the most residents had seen on the Fraser Coast in decades.
Among them was Andrea Bogart who posted a picture while leaving the local hospital at 11.50pm on the All New Hervey Bay Community Noticeboard “Impressive lightning show. I haven’t seen a storm like this in years.”
Aaron Pardey shared on the page that he had never seen a storm like it.
“Really some War of the Worlds like scenes from our front porch,” Mr Pardey said.
Posting a photo of a smashed glass window, Jess Atlantic said “our house shook and then the window shattered”.
On Saturday multiple shade sails had been downed at the Pialba Shopping Centre in Hervey Bay, mirroring scenes in Brisbane where an “intense microburst” tore off a roof and the sails in the Woolworths at Ascot.
Residents are being reminded to stay vigilant when cleaning up debris, as fallen power lines can be a hidden and deadly hazard.
Bundaberg was also among the hardest-hit locations, with more than 100 properties still waiting for power restoration on Saturday morning.
Outages across the region as of 9.30am Saturday:
Bundaberg: 101 properties
Woodgate: 9 properties
Howard: 16 properties
Fraser Coast: 47 properties
Bells Bridge: 14 properties
Bureau of Meteorology Senior Meteorologist Steven Hadley said Bundaberg had seen the most rainfall.
Bundaberg Aero saw the highest rainfall total in 24 hours (to 9am on Saturday 25 January 2025) with 74mm.
The previous rainfall this high at Bundaberg Aero was 158.4 mm on 22 October 2022 and it was the highest daily fall in January since 2022.
Bargara Alert recorded 62 mm, its highest daily fall since December 11 2022.
Elsewhere in the Wide Bay region, the South Burnett and Gympie area recorded only light falls including 4mm at Gympie.
Further north there was more widespread falls with isolated falls of more than 25mm, including at Gayndah Airport in the North Burnett which recorded 38mm – the heaviest fall to date in 2025 for that site.
In the Fraser Coast region, a storm at Takura Reservoir (west of Hervey Bay) produced 54 mm in the 30 minutes to 12:06am and ended up recording 65 mm for the full 24 hours to 9:00am this morning. Howard and Torbanlea received 45 and 51 mm respectively.
Further east, only 5mm was recorded at Hervey Bay and 3mm at Maryborough.
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