Sunshine Coast recovers as more severe storms predicted for SEQ

Southeast Queensland remains on storm alert after several cells wreaked havoc yesterday. SEE THE FOOTAGE, PICTURES

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January 17, 2021 - 11:40AM

QLD News

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The southeast is again on storm alert after multiple storms uprooted trees, damaged houses, flooded backyards and stopped the cricket on Saturday.

The Sunshine Coast was the hardest hit with footage showing wreckage from the storms strewn through Village Way in Little Mountain.

A large tree uprooted in Little Mountain on the Sunshine Coast. Picture:: Georg Woulfe

A woman took to social media to say it was the worst storm she had been on the coast in 15 years and “never seen a storm like this.”

“Torrential rain caused havoc with down pipes which could not cope, pot plants smashed, tree limbs over road, small creek now river and mess everywhere,” she wrote.

A tree across a road at Currimundi after storms on Saturday.

The top falls in the 24 hour period from 9am yesterday was at Black Mountain, south of Gympie, which had 79mm - 74mm of which fell in just one hour.

This car was hit by a tree during ferocious storms at Moffat Beach on the Sunshine Coast on Saturday.

The storms also hit the Brisbane area, with reports of 2-3cm hail in Beenleigh and 46mm falling in Toombul.

The storms rolled into the state’s capital as the mercury hit a sweltering 35.5C - making it the hottest day there since December 2019.

Trees were damaged during ferocious storms at Currimundi on Saturday.

Cricket fans can relax a little on Sunday, though, with the weather bureau forecasting only a 30 per cent chance of rain today with the chance of the odd shower around the Brisbane city.

“You couldn’t rule out a storm through the west (on Saturday), say west of Ipswich and maybe through the far northern suburbs towards the Sunshine Coast, but Brisbane City itself should remain quite clear,” BOM Meteorologist Kimba Wong said.

“Tomorrow there may be a different story with an upper-trough approaching from the west and that may thicken up the clouds so once again maybe an overcast day with a few more showers around.”

There is a chance for severe storms in the Wide Bay Burnett and the Central West and potentially from Toowoomba to Rainbow Beach.