Dangerous storms have dumped tennis ball-sized hailstones on parts of southeast Queensland, with one resident in Logan reporting a 13cm hailstone.

October 31, 2020

Queensland has been hit with tennis ball-sized hailstones as a series of dangerous supercell thunderstorms race across the state’s southeast.

Severe thunderstorms that formed along the Great Dividing Range are pushing towards the coast from the NSW border to areas north of the Sunshine Coast.

Hail up to 7cm in diameter fell at Ipswich, Gatton and Adare, west of Brisbane, the Bureau of Meteorology said on Saturday.

A 13cm hailstone has been reported at Logan, south of Brisbane.

“These thunderstorms are a significant threat to property and life,” the bureau tweeted.

Damaging winds and torrential rain that could lead to flash flooding are also likely.

“Very dangerous thunderstorms … supercell thunderstorms that could lead to giant hail and destructive wind gusts in excess of 125km/h,” meteorologist James Thompson said.

Mr Thompson said the supercells were fast-moving and rainfall had so far been low compared to recent storms.

“Some of the highest totals (today) are in the order of 20 to 30mm,” he said.

“The rain will come. It often comes in the early evening.”

Emergency warnings have been issued for parts of southern southeast Queensland, including Brisbane’s south, Ispwich, Logan and the Gold Coast.

Energex reports more than 28,000 electricity users in the southeast of the state are suffering an emergency outage.

Severe thunderstorms have also been detected near Kingaroy and Gympie.

These are moving east southeast towards Noosa, Caloundra and Caboolture.

Another storm is heading towards Esk, west of Brisbane.

People are urged to move cars undercover, secure loose outdoor items and stay indoors.

A general severe thunderstorm warning is also current for the Southeast Coast, parts of the Wide Bay and Burnett, the Darling Downs and the Granite Belt districts.

The forecast comes less than a week after two days of storms delivered a month worth of rain and flash flooding to some parts of the state, including Brisbane.

Tennis ball-sized hailstones pummelled the region on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Beachmere, near Caboolture, recorded 80mm of rain in an hour and 70mm fell on the Upper Lockyer, west of Brisbane.

Tiaro, north of the Sunshine Coast, recorded 51mm in an hour, with 22mm of it falling in five minutes.

Flash flooding affected some Brisbane areas at the height of the storms on Tuesday, which was the wettest October day in the city since 2010.