Qld weather: Storms advance on Gold Coast on second day of violent weather

Huge hail and damaging winds have hit parts of southeast Queensland as the region was battered with 50mm of rain in a matter of minutes and two-centimetre hail.

Southeast Queensland is in the midst of a second day of violent weather, with warnings issued for multiple severe thunderstorms across a region stretching from the NSW border to Wide Bay and Toowoomba.

Multiple storm systems slammed into the southeast in the early morning, afternoon and night on Thursday, delivering hail, heavy rain and flash flooding.

Two-centimetre hail was recorded at Laidley and Rosewood overnight as storms tracked southeast from Dalby in the early hours of Friday morning, while Benobble, near Mount Tamborine, recorded 50mm in 30 minutes to 6:05am, and Coolangatta picked up 31mm of rain between the hours of 6am and 7am.

The Gympie region and Noosa Heads were the latest in the firing line, with a particularly severe thunderstorm moving southeast and carrying large hail and more heavy rain.

Storm clouds seen from Grange in Brisbane, overlooking Alderley and Stafford, out to the north west. Picture: Sean Callinan

A more general thunderstorm warning is also current for the Wide Bay and Burnett regions, as well as Queensland’s Southeast Coast and parts of the Capricornia, Darling Downs, and Granite Belt districts.

Residents were urged to get their cars under cover, secure loose outdoor items, and avoid using the telephone.

A pre-frontal trough and associated dryline will continue to shift eastward over southeast Queensland, forecast to move off the far southern coast around midday, the Bureau said.

This system will anchor itself across areas over and to the north of the Wide Bay and Burnett during the afternoon period.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding in the warning area over the next several hours.

Locations which may be affected include Maroochydore, Gympie, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Caboolture and Redcliffe.

Severe thunderstorms advance on the Gold Coast, as seen in the 6.10am Bureau of Meteorology warning.

Weather conditions in southeast Queensland eased are expected to ease “temporarily” on Friday afternoon.

Meteorologist Helen Reid from the Bureau of Meteorology said that despite the easing, “the redevelopment of severe thunderstorms remains likely”.

“It is temporary at this point,” she said.

Ms Reid said that rainfall was falling predominantly in the Gold Coast region

It comes after a warning for “fast-developing” thunderstorms was issued late on Thursday night for a large part of southern Queensland after storms had swept through the southeast and Wide Bay areas, bringing in large hail and damaging winds.

The weather bureau said the thunderstorms were being caused by an active trough that was extending north into southeast Queensland from a cold front along the east coast.

Large hail was reported at a number of locations, included in Coes Creek in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, and in Glen Niven in the Granite Belt.

Thursday evening’s storms came after a morning of wild weather that triggered flash flooding and carnage on the roads in the state’s southeast.

Up to 53mm of rain fell on parts of the region in the hours since 9am on Thursday, but more than 80mm fell in the preceding 24 hours at Upper Springbrook and Wynnum, largely due to those early morning storms.

CURRENT TEMPS & 7-DAY FORECASTS

BRISBANE Queensland

GOLD COAST Queensland

SUNSHINE COAST Queensland

REDCLIFFE Queensland

LOGAN Queensland

IPSWICH Queensland