{"id":252852,"date":"2025-10-31T09:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/252852\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T09:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T09:02:13","slug":"large-hailstones-hammer-parts-of-south-east-queensland-as-severe-storms-loom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/252852\/","title":{"rendered":"Large hailstones hammer parts of south-east Queensland as severe storms loom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a “very dangerous” thunderstorm warning for parts of south-east Queensland, with millions of people urged to prepare for supercell storms that will bring large hail, heavy rainfall, and the risk of isolated tornadoes over the next 24 hours.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had quite a bit of storm activity kick off around the south-east this afternoon,” BOM forecaster Felim Hanniffy said.Loading…”There’s an intense cell developing near Laidley.”<\/p>\n

Despite hot and humid conditions, Mr Hanniffy said there had been reports of giant hail up to 7 centimetres in the Laidley area, although that storm cell has now weakened.<\/p>\n

“We’ve also had reports of golf ball-sized hail around the Redcliffe area,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nets were used at Gatton to protect some produce. (Supplied: Ghost Gully Produce Pty Ltd)<\/p>\n

A very dangerous thunderstorm warning remains in place for locations<\/a> including Toowoomba, the Sunshine Coast, and Gympie.<\/p>\n

“Plenty of storms up around the Sunny Coast … it does look like the focus is shifting northwards as we go into the rest of the afternoon and evening,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Storm activity is also picking up around Boonah and the Scenic Rim, Mr Hanniffy said, while Brisbane has so far avoided the worst of the severe weather, despite areas such as Ipswich, Toowoomba, and Caboolture also under warning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The storms also cut power to about 4,500 Energex customers on the Sunshine Coast, mainly around Aroona, Golden Beach, Pelican Waters and Battery Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Another 3,200 customers were affected in the Logan area, with the worst outages in Beenleigh, Cedar Vale and Eagleby.<\/p>\n

There won’t be any relief on Saturday as the risk of severe storm activity peaks and a surface trough moves across the state.<\/p>\n

“Tomorrow is in fact the peak day in terms of that very serious storm risk around south-east Queensland,” Mr Hanniffy said.<\/p>\n

\"Lightning<\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast residents saw lightning strikes offshore as the storm arrived on Friday afternoon. (Supplied: Leonore Van Der Zant)<\/p>\n

Weather patterns could be similar to those that wreaked havoc on Brisbane last weekend.<\/a><\/p>\n

The State Emergency Service (SES) has warned against driving unless necessary, and has asked residents to inform friends, family, and neighbours of the storm.<\/p>\n

It warns people should stay away from windows during hail, park cars under cover and away from trees, and close all doors and windows.<\/p>\n

Everyone is advised to seek shelter inside a strong building and remain indoors until the storm has passed.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Egg-sized hailstones fell in Laidley.\u00a0 (Supplied: Allan Hooper)<\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast residents caught in hail<\/p>\n

Nirimba resident Stephanie Hobbs was driving home when a storm hit the Sunshine Coast just after 3pm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said she was taken by surprise, with hailstones pelting her car “out of nowhere”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Threatening<\/p>\n

Dark clouds looming over Castaways Beach near Noosa as the storm closed in. (Supplied: Bruce Blyth)<\/p>\n

“I was screaming and freaking out because I had my son in the car,” Ms Hobbs said.<\/p>\n

She said the hailstones were about 5cm in diameter, with jagged edges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hail<\/p>\n

One Placid Hills resident says hailstones caught them by surprise. (Supplied: Gazza the Green Permaculture)<\/p>\n

When Ms Hobbs arrived home, she messaged her husband and told him to open the garage door so she and her son weren’t hit by hailstones as they got out of the vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Ms Hobbs said her son was quickly relieved, with skies clearing in time to go trick or treating.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a “very dangerous” thunderstorm warning for parts of south-east Queensland, with millions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,61838,149687,52473,44,13890,94,701,17711,36507,1192],"class_list":["post-252852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bom","tag-bureau-of-meterology","tag-hail","tag-news","tag-preparation","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-storm","tag-warnings","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}