Qld weather: Severe thunderstorms, wind gusts, large hail forecast for South East Queensland

A huge chunk of South East Queensland faces an increased threat of severe thunderstorms that could deliver damaging winds, large hail and flash flooding.

Lightning from the thunder storms pictured passing over the Story Bridge in Brisbane, 28th of October 2020. (Image/Josh Woning)

South East Queensland is under threat from severe thunderstorms today that could bring damaging winds and large hail, with the potential for heavy rainfall and flash flooding.

The new threat comes after a severe thunderstorm lashed Gympie and the Sunshine Coast on Monday, with hail almost 5cm in diameter and heavy rainfall with up to 44mm recorded.

Senior Meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology Angus Hines said storm season has well and truly commenced in Queensland.

The Bureau of Meteorology's thunderstorm forecast for Tuesday shows severe storms are likely in the southeast corner of the state.

“Storm season certainly has begun and we did see a little taste of that yesterday,” Mr Hines said.

“There was some pretty big hail reported around parts of South East Queensland yesterday, with hail four to five centimetres in size recorded.”

Hail that fell at Witta in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Picture: Supplied

Mr Hines said the risk of severe thunderstorms today brings the potential for damaging winds over 90km/h and large hail over 2cm to areas.

“We do have the risk of severe storms stretching across the south east, the main threats today look likely to be damaging wind gusts and large hail,” he said.

“There is a possibility that we could see some areas or some pockets of heavy rainfall, which potentially could lead to areas of flooding right underneath those storms that do develop and bring some spells of heavy rainfall here or there across the South East

“The risk today is from about mid afternoon through until certainly the middle of the evening.”

Hail in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Picture: Supplied

Mr Hines said the severe thunderstorms today will be more widespread from this afternoon and cover several regions – an area of more than 35,000 square kilometres in size.

“We’re seeing the possibility of severe thunderstorms across parts of the South East as well as the Wide Bay Burnett area, and maybe just pushing up into the Darling Downs as well.

“So that could include areas like Gympie, then stretching down into spots like Oakey and Toowoomba, and then down across much of the southeast.”

A fallen tree at The Dawn in the Gympie region. Picture: Scott Frances

Mr Hines said Brisbane appears to be on the cusp of the high risk area, with activity expected to be more prominent in land from the city.

“It looks a little bit more likely up in the inland parts of Brisbane and out to the west of the city there,” he said.

“The same thing for the Gold Coast, perhaps a little bit more likely in the Gold Coast hinterlands.”

Mr Hines said there is also the potential for severe weather on Wednesday, with a chance of heavy rain and flooding.

“So tomorrow, the focal point of the storms does look like it shifts a little bit northwards on Wednesday, so the main areas become the Wide Bay and Burnett potentially up into parts of the Capricornia, maybe about as far north as Rockhampton, and then inland through parts of the Central Highlands, as well as parts of the Darling Downs, where in Central and South East Queensland,” he said.

“Again, wind and hail could be a risk, but also we could see some areas of heavy rain and flooding on Wednesday.”

Originally published as Qld weather: Severe thunderstorms, wind gusts, large hail forecast for South East Queensland