Giant hailstones, destructive winds and lightning have lashed parts of south-east Queensland leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without power.
Severe thunderstorm warnings are in place from the New South Wales border to the Sunshine Coast and parts of Gympie.
The Bureau of Meteorology said 11-centimetre hailstones were reported at Ferny Hills in the Moreton Bay region and Manly on Brisbane’s bayside at about 3:30pm.
At Brisbane Airport, a 107-kilometre per hour wind gust was recorded while a 100kph gust was recorded at Maroochydoore.
Giant hail fell in the Logan suburb of Cornubia this afternoon as sorms sweep across south-east Queensland. (Supplied: Madison Fealy)
Senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said the storm was unlikely to ease as it moved north.
“It’s moving into an even more unstable atmosphere as it gets up into the Sunshine Coast, so it’s probably just going to continue to be very powerful as it continues moving further north,” he said.
Storms have also swept over parts of the Scenic Rim, producing strong winds and rain at Kylie Munce’s home in Canungra.
She said there had been a “steady stream” of hail fall in varying sizes which settled around 2:30pm.
“I’m more worried about the wind gusts [than the hail],” she said.
“Lightning strikes are hitting Tamborine Mountain range, it’s wild.”
Large hail has fallen at Wynnum this afternoon. (Supplied: Bonita Anderson )
More than 138,000 customers have lost power across south-east Queensland, with Moreton Bay, Ipswich and the Sunshine Coast regions most affected.
“We’ve also got reports already of about 300 power lines down,” Justin Coomber from Energex told ABC Radio Brisbane.
“We do ask people to ring in any power lines that they see down, [and report] the locations of those.”
The storm cell moving over Manly in Brisbane’s bayside this afternoon. (Supplied: Sophie Bates )
Mr Coomber said Energex had recorded about 525,000 lightning strikes so far on Monday.
“Yesterday, I think we had about 250,000 lightning strikes in the whole day across south-east Queensland, and just this afternoon we’ve had double that,” he said.
“So that shows … that’s going to be some damage out there.”
The State Emergency Service has responded to 570 calls for help, including 254 in Logan, 178 in Brisbane and 98 in the Redlands.
Hailstones measuring 5.5-6cm were recorded by Morgan Eric at Tamrookum. (Supplied: Morgan Eric)
All flights at Brisbane Airport were halted temporarily on Monday afternoon.
Peter Doherty told ABC Radio Brisbane workers were called in from the tarmac due to lightning within 10 kilometres of the airport.
Planes on the tarmac at Brisbane Airport this afternoon. (ABC News: Helen Wright)
“It’s no place for passengers or pilots or crew or baggage handlers out on the tarmac, so everybody’s inside as the worst of that storm passes through,” he said.
Mr Doherty said no flights had been cancelled, but rather were in a “holding pattern” until the storm passed.