Travel chaos: Storms force Townsville flights to be redirected mid-air

Severe thunderstorms caused chaos at Townsville Airport after several flights got redirected to land in Cairns, leaving some sleeping on terminal floors.

Severe thunderstorms caused chaos at Townsville Airport Monday night after several flights had to be redirected to land in Cairns, leaving some sleeping on terminal floors.

Townsville was struck by severe thunderstorms that bucketed down more than 100 millimetres of rain, with reports of flash flooding in one suburb, on Monday night.

Three flights — VA383, JQ906 and JQ916 — due to land in Townsville were redirected to Cairns, as severe storm warnings were issued by the Bureau of Meteorology for the region at 10pm.

About 50 passengers travelling on the Virgin VA383 flight from Brisbane were forced to spend the night at the Cairns airport due to a lack of affordable hotel availability.

Lightning was captured at Shaw during Monday night's storms. Picture: Peter Nash

A spokesman from Virgin Australia said they were working to get passengers to Townsville as quickly as possible on Tuesday morning, with many returning by bus.

“Sometimes unforeseeable factors such as weather can impact our operations, and we sincerely apologise to guests who were affected by this disruption,” they said.

Severe thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall for parts of Townsville on Monday night, with 103mm recorded at Townsville Airport.

Severe thunderstorms hit Townsville on Monday night.

There was 122mm recorded at The Lakes, 108mm at Annandale, 107mm at Mysterton, 101mm at Aitkenvale, 95mm at Castle Hill, 86mm at Cluden, 73mm at Vincent and 66mm at South Townsville.

Police also responded to reports of a road in Aitkenvale being temporarily flooded for about an hour during the storms last night. All roads should now be clear.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the slow-moving thunderstorms had developed inland on a surface trough before they began approaching the coast from the west on Monday night.

Their severe thunderstorm warning for the region has since been withdrawn.

Lightning strikes at Yabulu during Monday nights storms. Picture: Cheryl Larsen.

A heatwave warning remains in place today for parts of North Queensland, including Peninsula, North Tropical Coast and Tablelands and Central Coast and Whitsundays Districts.

Maximum temperatures in the mid-thirties to around forty degrees and minimum temperatures in the mid-twenties are expected over Northern Queensland for much of this week.

Heatwave conditions are expected to peak during this week and then begin to ease over the coming weekend. Locations likely to be impacted include Mapoon and Weipa.

Originally published as Travel chaos: Storms force Townsville flights to be redirected mid-air