Storm warnings issued as Outback Qld heatwave continues

Huge hail and heavy winds have hammered parts of southern Queensland after the Bureau of Meteorology flagged a series of “very dangerous” storms.

• Urgent road works follow ‘surprise’ storm

Huge hail and heavy winds have hammered parts of southern Queensland as a series of dangerous storm cells moved across southern Queensland this afternoon.

The Bureau of Meteorology reports 7-8cm hailstones at Sexton northwest of Gympie around 2.45 and 4-5cm was reported a Mt Kilcoy around 2pm, and Stony Creek around 2.35pm.

A wind gust of 122km/h was recorded at Gayndah airport at 3.30pm.

About 17,000 homes are without power from the Mary Valley north to Curra.

The Bureau says the immediate threat of severe storms had eased for the South East, but that they were likely to redevelop.
Severe weather warnings ceased at 7.30pm Thursday.

Hail at Anderleigh near Gympie. Picture: Chris Stewart/Facebook.

The Bureau says storms producing giant hailstones and damaging, locally destructive winds are likely over the next several hours in parts of the Wide Bay and Burnett district.

Locations which may be affected include Bundaberg, Maryborough, Hervey Bay, Biggenden, Gin Gin and Tiaro.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce large, possibly giant hailstones and damaging winds over the next several hours in parts of the Central Highlands and Coalfields, Capricornia, Wide Bay and Burnett and Southeast Coast districts.

Locations which may be affected include Gympie, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Biloela, Calliope and Rainbow Beach.

Today’s storms come after three days of high temperatures and an overnight tempest that brought down trees and cut power to thousands of homes and businesses.

That storm is still causing issues with Brisbane transport systems, with TransLink reporting that all train lines are delayed 90 minutes due to a track fault because of severe weather.

Rail replacement buses are now operating on the Doomben line.

Hail at Anderleigh near Gympie. Picture: Chris Stewart/Facebook.

Power is out to more than 4500 homes across South East Queensland, mostly around the Sunshine Coast.

This afternoon’s storms have been created by a surface and upper trough creating “highly unstable” conditions.

On the recent heatwave conditions, the Bureau’s Danny Johnson earlier said he expected temperatures to be 5-6C above average today.

He said more storms were likely after wild weather that hit earlier this morning, bringing thousands of lightning strikes and cutting power to thousands of homes and businesses.

The storms led to the heatwave warning being downgraded to severe in the state’s southeast corner but extreme heat is still expected for the north and north western regions with some areas reaching 35C by 9am and inching above 40 by lunchtime.

“We're gonna see temperatures anywhere from 35 to 37 degrees, so very warm conditions above average (for the South East) … and we are expecting some thunderstorms this afternoon, possibly severe with damaging winds and large hail starting on the coast during this afternoon and evening so please keep an eye out,” Mr Johnson said.

He stressed that extreme heat conditions were likely in the Peninsula, Gulf Country, Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, North Tropical Coast and Tablelands, Herbert and Lower Burdekin and Central Coast and Whitsundays districts.

Winton and Longreach appear to be the hottest areas of the state, sitting at 41.6C and 41.5C at 12.30.

Camooweal, Julia Creek and Cloncurry are other centres to have hit 40C.

Birdsville, which has been the hottest spot in the state for the past two days, is bucking the trend on Thursday, a relatively cool 33C at 12.30.

A cooler change is expected in South East Queensland on Friday, with the temperature in Brisbane likely to drop back down to 27C.

Hail at Granville on the Fraser Coast