Qld weather: Severe thunderstorms forecast for southern, central and northern regions

Severe thunderstorms have hit parts of inland Queensland overnight, with one area recording more than 80mm in an hour, as more flared up this morning.

A storm rolls into Cooya, Darling Downs. Picture: Luke Marsden.

Severe thunderstorms have hit parts of inland Queensland overnight, with one area recording more than 80mm in an hour, as more have begun to flare up this morning.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 5.54am for parts of the Central Coast and Whitsundays and Central Highlands and Coalfields forecast districts, with warnings a severe storm is moving towards the Mackay coast.

It was cancelled at 7.29am, but more storms are expected later in the day, and it comes after overnight storms produced heavy rain in the state’s west.

Arcadia Valley near Rolleston recorded 83mm in the 60 minutes to 10.08pm, as heavy rain was unleashed

Other noteworthy totals included 60mm at Sheep Station Creek (Gemfields) in the 60 minutes to 3.30am, 91mm at Capella in the three hours to 3.13am, 65mm at Beckers in the 60 minutes to 1.34am, and 63mm La Palma, near Taroom, in the 60 minutes to 11.25pm.

Earlier on Friday, meteorologist Shane Kennedy from the Bureau of Meteorology said showers are predicted across the state, and thunderstorms were expected inland across southern, central and northern Queensland today.

“We’ll see some isolated, generally light showers through the south east during the afternoon before calming down overnight,” he said.

“Still seeing some thunderstorms inland in central and northern Queensland, between Emerald and Charters Towers at the moment. They may get reasonably close to the coast near the Townsville and Mackay areas.”

Thunderstorms in central and southern Queensland on Friday are expected to remain west of Rockhampton and Toowoomba.

Mr Kennedy said a trough moving east may bring increasing showers and thunderstorms to South East Queensland and up the east coast on Saturday.

“We could see some isolated severe thunderstorms for eastern Queensland south of Mackay on Saturday, that includes all of the south east coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast,” he said.

The storms on Saturday are most likely to occur in the afternoon or evening, he said, but there is a chance of isolated morning storms.

Rainfall is not expected to impact flooding in North Queensland.

“We could still see some rainfall totals in the 5 to 20mm range, but if we do see those severe thunderstorms, we’ll see some totals of 50 to 100mm or more,” Mr Kennedy said.

Originally published as Qld weather: Severe thunderstorms forecast for southern, central and northern regions