Bureau of Meteorology warns of damaging winds and large hail across Queensland
Hail has again hammered parts of southern Queensland, with severe storm warnings in place.
Hail has again hammered parts of southern Queensland, with severe storm warnings in place.
Brisbane city has already copped heavy rain and hail, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a warning just after 3pm for severe storms for the area.
Power is out for more than 2000 properties in the Brisbane City Council area, with the Bureau of Meteorology saying hail up to 4cm fell at Bardon about 3.30 and 2-3cm of hail at Milton around the same time.
Powerlines were damaged across Brisbane at 4.15pm, with several traffic lights out on major roads as peak hour approached.
Crews raced to a fallen tree which snapped powerlines near Edith Street, Enoggera.
Police were also diverting traffic on Gympie Road in Kedron, Waterworks Road in Ashgrove and Park Street in Kelvin Grove where key traffic lights have been hit with outages.
It follows a dramatic night on the southern Darling Downs where winds reached 165km/h.
A BoM warning at 3.40pm said the storm threat remained for the Cherbourg, Gympie, Logan, Somerset, Scenic Rim, Gold Coast, Redland City, Brisbane City, Western Downs and Toowoomba Council Areas.
A broader warning covering vast parts of the state has also been updated, with the Bureau warning of persistent moisture and instability.
Locations which may be affected include Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Maroochydore, Gympie, Kingaroy, Coolangatta and Ipswich.
Further north Rockhampton, St Lawrence, Yeppoon, Mount Morgan, Marlborough and Sarina are in the firing line.
A warning for the Maranoa and Warrego has been cancelled.
The Bureau said 57mm of rain had fallen at Fish Hole Creek, in the state’s north west, in the 30 minutes to 12.45pm. A total of 52mm of rain fell at Mareeba in the 30 minutes to 2.20.
Higgins Storm Chasing earlier on Thursday warned of a possible “rapid eruption of explosive storms” today, with isolated supercells capable of delivering giant hail.
“The time frames for these storms are earlier than normal due to atmospheric thresholds being reached … with the peak activity between 1-6pm,” Higgins reported.
“Temperatures haven’t climbed as quickly as anticipated but they’re pushing towards the 35-38C mark. Be patient, big storms are coming but the expectation was always that today will be more isolated than compared to Monday.”
In terms of heat, temperatures around South East Queensland have climbed into the mid-30s.
Brisbane’s hit 33.8C just before 2pm. Meanwhile, the mercury has climbed to 35.5 at Amberley, but with an apparent temperature of 38.4C.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said the severe thunderstorms were expected to bring wind gusts stronger than 90km/h, large hail and rain that could lead to flash flooding.
Ms Bradbury warned the storms would be most likely through the late morning to late afternoon, with a possibility they will continue into the evening in some parts of the state.
“What’s really causing them is the warm and moist conditions that are still sitting in the atmosphere over Queensland, including South East Queensland,” she said.
“Both the heat that we are seeing, and that moisture in the air, the humidity, they act as fuel for any storms that are developing.
“In addition to that, we’ve got a low pressure through, which is moving in from the west. That low-pressure trough acts like a trigger. It pushes the first domino over, and it’s likely to kick up those storms.
“We’ve seen a very similar environment across South East Queensland over the last few days, which is why we’ve unfortunately seen these storms occurring over the last few days, and today has that risk once again.”
It comes after a terrifying night for the Darling Downs, where a 165km/h wind gust was recorded at Leslie Dam near Warwick. The sheer force of the wind uprooted an 80-year-old gum tree, while Goondiwindi Airport recorded a 107km/h gust just before 6.30pm.
Several homes in Warwick had roofs blown off and powerlines were downed across the region as emergency crews raced to multiple call-outs between 8.30pm and 9.40pm.
Thunderstorms have occurred daily since late last week, with the most severe dumping giant hail on Southeast Queensland on Sunday and Monday.
Millions of lightning pulses have been detected over eastern Australia in the last few days, including about 950,000 pulses within 200km of Brisbane between Sunday morning and Wednesday morning.
Weatherzone’s Ben Domensino said one of the key ingredient’s driving the volatile weather had been hot air spreading from Central Australia across Queensland and NSW.
“This outback heat, which was intensified by Tropical Cyclone Fina passing over northern Australia late last week, has caused temperatures to reach the low to mid-40s in parts of Queensland and NSW every day since Sunday,” he said.
While the region prepares for further battering, desperate Bribie Island residents have pleaded with the state government for financial help as thousands remain without power following Monday’s devastating storm.
Calls to activate financial assistance have so far fallen on deaf ears, with Disaster Recovery Minister Ann Leahy stating work was still under way to determine if cash should be unlocked.
“Pockets of South East Queensland have been hit hard by the recent storms and my sympathies go out to those who have had their homes and businesses affected,” Ms Leahy said.
“Queenslanders know when it comes to disaster recovery we are with them for the long haul, and our disaster agencies are working closely with councils to ensure local communities have the support they need.”
It is understood the Queensland Reconstruction Authority and councils are still collecting data on the damage before triggering a disaster declaration.
More than 14,000 Southeast Queensland homes and businesses remained without power at 9am on Thursday, down from 162,000 on Monday night.
Close to 4000 homes on Bribie Island remain in the dark, with limited mobile coverage.
Jonathon Taylor, 32, owner of The Crabpot Fish and Chips in Woorim, was forced to throw away “everything” after losing power for more than 48 hours.
Mr Taylor lost thousands of dollars in stock and at least three days of trade before a generator restored power at 5pm Wednesday.
“Obviously we would’ve liked it to be back on sooner,” Mr Taylor said.
“It’s a shame, but we’re all just trying to get on with it.”
Mr Taylor said they remained in the dark about when mains power would return.
“Powerlines are still down, so looks like it might not be on until Friday,” he said.
“It’s hard, but the show must go on.”
At the Blue Pacific Hotel in Woorim, bartender Laura Topfer, 43, estimated the pub had lost $40,000.
“We’re operating, but minimally. We can’t use our eftpos machines, we can’t use TAB or Keno because the internet’s still not up and running,” Ms Topfer said.
“We had to throw out basically everything from the kitchen and all of our milk supply for the coffee machine – thousands of dollars worth of stock.
“I tipped out 14 litres of milk this afternoon.”
Ms Topfer said staff had missed out on crucial wages and their Rockfest event was indefinitely postponed.
“It’s upsetting, but mostly everyone is happy they’re alive, even people who have lived here 35 years said it was the worst storm they’ve ever experienced,” she said.
“We’re just really hoping power can be restored soon. It’s always a lot slower here than on the mainland, but that’s just part of living here.”
Optus confirmed it had restored 149 mobile sites in the southeast, with 30 still offline due to power cuts. Telstra said 90 per cent of its sites were back online, though 14 mobile sites and 1709 landlines remained disrupted.
Insurers have received more than 27,800 claims for the southeast storms this week, with the event officially declared an “insurance catastrophe”.
Insurance Council of Australia chief executive Andrew Hall warned residents to be wary of “disaster chasers” offering quick-fix repairs for upfront cash.
“We encourage anyone who’s been impacted by recent storms to lodge a claim with their insurer, even if they don’t know the full extent of the damage,” Mr Hall said.
8C ABOVE AVERAGE: HEATWAVE GRIPS STATE
Queensland is in the grip of a brutal heatwave, with severe conditions affecting large parts of the state.
In the southeast, temperatures will reach 36C in Brisbane, but high humidity will make it feel closer to 40C.
On Wednesday, Birdsville recorded a scorching 43.6C, while Ballera, Thargomindah, Windorah, Longreach, Century Mine and Julia Creek all recorded temperatures of more than 41C on Wednesday.
But there’s little reprieve in sight until early next week, with Longreach, Winton, Isisford, Chinchilla, Julia Creek, Barcaldine and Blackall set to reach highs of more than 40C on Thursday.
The greater Brisbane region will swelter for most of the day, with Caboolture and Brisbane set to hit 36C by noon, but it will feel more like 40C.
Chermside will also reach 36C but feel slightly cooler with a “feels like” temperature of 38C.
South of Brisbane, Logan will fare a little better with a top of 35C, though humidity will still push the noon “feels like” temperature to 39C.
Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said temperatures are sitting at least 2C to 8C above the November average.
“Low to severe intensity heatwaves are continuing for much of the central and eastern parts of Queensland. Severe intensity heatwaves are impacting the north tropical coast, the central coast, the coast of the Wide Bay/Burnett, and the Southeast coast, extending down into the northern rivers of NSW,” she said.
“These severe heatwaves mean it will be difficult to manage the heat and heat stress on the body. People are advised to stay cool, stay indoors, and stay hydrated. The heat is expected to linger through Friday and into the early part of the weekend. A true cooling trend is not anticipated for much of NSW and Queensland until likely early next week.”
Fire danger ratings will remain high on Thursday in Central Highlands and Coalfields, Central West, Channel Country, Darling Downs and Granite Belt, Maranoa and Warrego, and Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, while the Southeast will see low fire danger ratings for the remainder of the week.
Originally published as Bureau of Meteorology warns of damaging winds and large hail across Queensland
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