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 pelted with tennis ball-sized hailstones as dangerous supercell thunderstorms race across the state’s southeast.

Severe thunderstorms have formed along the Great Dividing Range and 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 been low compared to recent storms.

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

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

The emergency warning signal was aired via radio broadcasters in parts of southern southeast Queensland, including Ispwich, Logan, Jimboomba and Coomera.

Energex reports more than 26,000 electricity users in the southeast of the state are suffering an emergency outage.

Severe thunderstorms have also been detected west of Kingaroy, moving east to southeast towards Caboolture, north 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.