Rain and storm lashes southern Queensland with more forecast through the day

A line of storms stretching from Nanango to south of the border is moving slowly across south-east Queensland, after late-night storms swept across Boonah and Logan.

Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecaster James Thompson said overnight storm activity was severe.

“Fifty-one millimetres [of rain] in half an hour overnight at Forestdale [in Logan] and then also some severe storms this morning out towards Oakey and Dalby as well,” Mr Thompson said.

“Pretty active weather pattern today, but becoming much more stable through tomorrow.”

Mr Thompson said today would be “sort of like a Melbourne storm day where we could get hail”.

He said it was due to a “really cold air mass” above the region.

Mr Thompson said the storm threat had temporarily eased by about 7:30am, but that storms could redevelop.

Wivenhoe Dam, the region’s largest water storage, received just 5mm of rain overnight. It’s currently at 41.4 per cent of capacity. 

‘Desperately needed’ rain, hail makes tanks overflow

Meteorologist Pieter Claassen said overnight a large amount of small hail fell in the Boonah area, west of the Gold Coast, along with 40 millimetres of rain in half an hour.

Near Crows Nest on the Darling Downs, Bruce Woolley said his property received 18mm of “desperately needed” rain.

“We woke up about six o’clock this morning to some thunder and lightning,” he said.

“There was a lot of hail at the time and when I looked at the tanks they were actually overflowing, not because they were full but because the water was coming down at such a rate that it couldn’t flow into the tanks easily enough.”

He said there had been no damage from the hail and he was making the most of the weather.