The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says severe thunderstorms stretch from the far north to southern Queensland, but the main activity has been around Toowoomba and the Gold Coast this afternoon.
BOM senior forecaster David Grant says the storms have dumped some hail at Biddeston and Highfields near Toowoomba but the State Emergency Service (SES) says no-one has been asking for help.
“We had a couple of large thunderstorms develop and we did have reports of some two to three-centimetre hail around Toowoomba,” he said.
“Currently we have a line of thunderstorms from pretty much up around Mt Isa all the way down to the Gold Coast.
“We do have a severe thunderstorm warning current for eastern parts of the Darling Downs, southern central highlands and western parts of Wide Bay and the south-east coast.”
The weather bureau says Brisbane may escape the severe thunderstorms sweeping the south-east.
Senior forecaster Brian Rolstone says the heaviest activity is to the north of Brisbane.
“The heavier storm activity is actually moving quite rapidly now through Redcliffe and Caboolture,” he said.
“[It was] previously a severe thunderstorm, but that is weakening now and it is just about off the coast.”
Power cuts
No major storm damage has been reported on the Gold Coast, but Energex spokesman Nathan Hatch says power supplies have been cut on the southern end of the coast.
“It is quite ferocious if it’s been able to knock out 10,000 customers in a short amount of time,” he said.
“We really want everyone to be as safe as possible and stay away from any fallen powerlines.”
Energex says another 1,000 customers are without power at Ipswich, west of Brisbane, and surrounding areas.
Regional electricity provider Ergon Energy says the storms have caused blackouts on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland.
Ergon says about 6,000 customers have lost power and crews are out trying to restore supply.
In northern Brisbane there are about 2,000 power outages.
Police say landslides on the Toowoomba Range will continue to cause traffic problems over the weekend.
The slides were started by yesterday’s severe weather.
Police have closed one lane of traffic on the Warrego Highway as the clean up continues.
The road is expected to remain partially closed over the weekend.
