Queensland’s wild weather explained after month of tornadoes, supercell storms

Four tornadoes have slammed into Queensland in the past month along with giant hail, dust storms and supercell thunderstorms. Experts say a trifecta of climate events is behind the extreme weather.

A trifecta of climate events has contributed to Queensland’s wild weather over the past month with storm chasers saying they’ve never seen such a savage start to the storm season.

A record-breaking October sent down Australia’s largest ever hailstone, Brisbane the most rain for the month since 2010, and a succession of tornadoes which have left a trail of destruction.

The most recent tornado suspected to have touched down tore through a rural property at Miva, near Bundaberg, on Tuesday night.

University of Southern Queensland research fellow Dr Chelsea Jarvis said the state was being impacted by three key events including a Southern Annular Mode, which is associated with strong westerly winds, storms and cold fronts.

Giant hailstones measuring 12cm that fell at Yalboroo near Mackay on October 19. Picture: Supplied

A La Nina and the Indian Ocean Dipole are also playing key roles in the weather.

“It’s never one thing, it’s a series of things but all the odds have shifted in the storm’s favour this year … it’s essentially this trifecta,” she said.

“Trying to say this is definitely climate change, we don’t know that offhand.”

“But the way climate change fits in, not attributing it to the recent storms but more generally speaking, our temperatures are getting warmer overall and warm air holds more moisture.”

Dr Jarvis said the Indian Ocean Dipole can funnel moisture into the region, as well as the SAM which can do the same.

Damage caused by giant hailstones near Mackay. Picture: Supplied

“As a climatologist that’s always my main message to get across to people, it’s never one thing, it is always a series of things.”

BOM have confirmed four tornadoes across the state this month- near Mackay, Pittsworth, Brisbane Airport and Gladstone.

Bureau Meteorologist Livio Regano said there has been an ‘unusual’ amount of tornadoes so far this Spring.

“On average in Queensland we get about two and a quarter each year and 60 in Australia, which sounds like a lot, but they are mostly inland and Australia is very open, a lot get missed or under reported but we do get them,” he said.

Not including the four this year, there have been 108 reported tornadoes in Queensland since 1970.

“I think it goes mostly to luck, the conditions we have had have been ripe for tornadoes, in previous years they haven’t happened and this time they did,” Mr Regano said.

Damage at Brisbane Airport caused by a tornado. Picture: David Clark

Sky News Weather Chief Meteorologist Tom Saunders conceded the frequency of twisters hitting townships in the past few weeks wasn’t normal.

“To have seven tornadoes confirmed, with vision of them all, in just over three weeks, that would definitely be above average,” he said.

Mr Saunders said the reason Queensland had experienced so many tornadoes recently was because of high amounts of wind shear.

“Wind shear refers to a change in wind direction and speed with height and the amount of wind shear in the atmosphere over the past few weeks has been incredibly high,”

“It’s that change in direction that allows that storm to rotate and if that rotation in the cloud stretches to the surface, that’s when you get a tornado.”

A dust storm at Thargomindah. Picture: Instagram/@explorebulloo

The conditions have led to October breaking records before its end with a 16cm hailstone hitting the ground at Yalboroo, larger than Australia’s previous record of 14cm.

Christopher Harvey was covered in shards of glass when his windscreen shattered in the storm on October 19.

He pulled over between Proserpine and Mackay as giant chunks of hail fell over what he estimated to be a 200m stretch of road.

A hole left in his rear windscreen measured 12cm long.

“I’d say it was terrifying because I knew I couldn’t do anything,” Mr Harvey said.

“When I saw that stuff bouncing off the road, shattering my windscreen and denting my roof, I knew that was pretty remarkable.

Parts of the state have also recorded three times their average October rainfall.

More than 226mm of rain has fallen at Brisbane Airport before the month’s end, the most for October since 2010 when 373.3mm fell.

A tornado near Gladstone earlier this month. Picture: Supplied

The storm season started with a literal bang in late September when a neighbour’s roof flew into Cristina Zito’s Adavale home in western Queensland.

Ms Zito, who lives in the same building as her cafe Elegant Emu, said the wind howling around her home was like a tornado as it ripped off her own roof.

“I was laying there awake and the house actually lifted up off the stumps and was shifting in the breeze,” Ms Zito said.

“I got up and saw my front veranda roof had gone, glass started crashing everywhere, and with another crash the neighbours’ shed roof lifted off and landed on our house.

“It was scary, I cried.”

State Director for the SES Glenn Alderton said the volunteer-based organisation had since received about 500 further calls for assistance around the state.

The most calls for help came from the Gold Coast and Brisbane areas but a single weather event isn’t to blame for the surge in the state’s south.

RACQ has so far received more than 1900 weather-related claims for the month across many days and regions, a spokeswoman said.

“Last year for example the majority of the claims came from the one storm on Halloween,” she said.

“This month already we’ve received claims for weather-related damage from the Queensland/New South Wales border out to Toowoomba and up to Mackay.”