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Overnight storm in South-east Queensland ‘a sign of things to come’: BOM

A line of overnight storms passed over Brisbane early last week.

A line of overnight storms passed over Brisbane early last week. Photo: Tom Dever

A quick-moving storm has swept through south-east Queensland overnight, with some strikes causing damage to the electricity network.

The storm formed over the northern Darling Downs before moving down across the city about 1:30am on Tuesday.

Energex said earlier this morning up to 17,500 homes and businesses were without power, although throughout the morning many had since had access restored.

The energy provider recorded 66,000 lightning strikes across the region.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Kimba Wong said the storm cell was so fast-moving there wasn’t much rain.

“Certainly when it did fall it was quite heavy, in a very short burst,” she said.

“I think we’ve got basically a strip across from about Oakey to the Gold Coast, where we had about 10 to 20 millimetres in most gauges there.”

BOM on Monday said storm and shower activity across eastern Queensland was set to increase this week, especially today and tomorrow.

“Perhaps a sign of things to come for the next couple of days so we certainly are expecting quite active conditions,” she said.

“That’s all due to an upper trough that’s amplifying over the state, so just ahead of that system we’ve got very ripe atmospheric conditions for storm activity over the next couple of days.”

Rainfall is expected to be heaviest around the Sunshine Coast hinterland and the Gold Coast region on Tuesday, with falls of between 5 and 30 millimetres possible.

Autumn storms ‘fairly common’ in Queensland

A line of overnight storms passed over South-East Queensland last week.

Storm activity is expected to ease from Thursday, with sunshine on the forecast for Friday across most of the state.

BOM forecaster Rosa Hoff said stormy weather at this time of year was not unusual, and that the impact from the La Niña system had eased.

“Traditionally we do see the impact of it over the spring and summer months and as we’ve transitioned into autumn its influence has eased,” she said.

“It’s not uncommon for us to see troughs moving across inland Queensland.

“It is fairly common to see the occasional bursts of storm-like weather through the transitional months.”

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