Fierce storms, torrential rain and giant hail set to slam the east
A surge of severe storms is barrelling across parts of the country, promising a weekend of chaos, heavy rain, and hail capable of causing serious damage.
Australia’s east is bracing for a wild weekend of severe weather, with thunderstorms, damaging winds, and hail of up to 5cm expected to hit parts of Queensland, NSW, Victoria, and Tasmania.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has warned the storms could arrive earlier than initially expected, with South East Queensland facing heavy conditions from Friday afternoon.
Parts of inland southeast Queensland, including Ipswich, Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley, Toowoomba, and up to Kingaroy, are set to be hit by gusts over 90km/h and hail ranging from 2cm to 5cm in diameter.
Thunderstorms are expected to fire up across far southwestern and southern Queensland before moving into the southeast later in the day.
Senior Meteorologist Harry Clark said the threat was driven by warm conditions and a trough moving in from the west.
“We’re broadly expecting thunderstorms and showers to form across southern Queensland this afternoon,” Mr Clark said.
“We’ve got a fairly warm air mass in place that is giving us a little bit of energy and a trough coming through from the west will turn that energy into showers and thunderstorms. Any severe thunderstorm activity will bring the risk of damaging wind gusts in excess of 90km/h and large hail.”
Mr Clark also warned that the system would linger into the weekend.
“The system will be in place today and also again tomorrow, so we could see further serious thunderstorm activity across southern inland Queensland,” he said.
“For the southeast tomorrow, it will be quite overcast and even a little bit of rain around at times, particularly for Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It is going to be a bit of a gloomy day, with a slight chance of a thunderstorm.”
The severe weather is part of a broader pattern affecting much of the eastern states, caused by a pair of cold fronts expected to bring widespread thunderstorms, wind gusts of up to 110km/h, and the potential for large hail across parts of Victoria and NSW.
Severe weather warnings are in place for northern Melbourne, the Dandenong Ranges, the Mornington Peninsula, and parts of the Snowy Mountains. Tasmania is also under alert, with warnings issued for the Western, Upper Derwent Valley, Central Plateau, and South East districts.
BOM meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said Tasmania would see a “burst of windy weather” from a weaker cold front on Thursday, but a stronger front early Saturday would bring a more “extensive” risk.
“In anticipation of that risk, we do have severe weather warnings current for both Victoria and NSW for damaging winds,” Ms Bradbury said.
“As we go through Friday morning, rain will start to ramp across those inland parts of the east, pushing back into parts of South Australia too. As our stronger cold front moves through late Friday into Saturday we’ll see the rain continuing through the east.”
Thunderstorms are forecast to stretch from southern inland Queensland all the way down to Victoria on Friday, with the highest rainfall totals expected from these storms. “Thunderstorms are really going to bring us our highest rainfall totals over the next couple of days,” Ms Bradbury said.
Authorities are urging residents in affected areas to secure outdoor items, prepare for possible power outages, and avoid travel if possible.
Originally published as Fierce storms, torrential rain and giant hail set to slam the east
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