Australia Weather News

More severe storms are predicted across the state today after 100km/h winds, large hail, and 'tornado-like' storms hit parts of Queensland overnight,leaving farmers devastated.

The Bureau of Meteorology recorded wind gusts up to 107km/h at Yeppoon on the Capricorn Coast while hailstones of 6–8cm in diameter were reported in the Stanthorpe region.

Southern Downs Regional Council Mayor Melissa Hamilton lives at Eukey, south of Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt. 

She was driving home from a council meeting in Warwick when she got stuck in the hailstorm.

"Certainly the hailstones were very large and all traffic came to a halt," she said.

"It was a fairly loud and intense experience sitting in a car and I actually wondered whether the windscreen was going to hold out.

"My thoughts were going out to our fruit growers and our horticultural industry … hailstorms at this time of year are very hard for them in particular."

Narissa Corfe from the Granite Belt Growers Association said a number of producers in Dalveen, Applethorpe, and Pozieres were not far away from their first harvest of the season.

"A lot of our apples and berries and all of that sort of commodity have been dramatically affected that we know of so far," she said.

"Historically speaking we generally see these sorts of hailstorm bands affect a very specific path. They're almost like tornadoes in the respect of how they travel down any given road.

"One of our growers has been fully wiped out for the season, which is never a good thing to hear.

"It's been quite devastating this morning for our growers."

The storm event comes after storms lashed southern, central, and northern parts of the state overnight.

Senior forecaster Miriam Bradbury said the "warm, stormy week" would continue into the weekend.

"It was once again another afternoon and evening of thunderstorm activity," she said.

"The observation from Yeppoon definitely meets our criteria for damaging wind gusts and those really strong winds do have the capability of bringing down trees."

The State Emergency Service responded to 17 calls for assistance Tuesday afternoon and night.

They were mostly for structural damage to properties and fallen trees.

Fifty-eight millimetres of rain fell in an hour at Emerald Crest, near Mareeba in Far North Queensland, on Tuesday afternoon.

Sutties Creek, west of Innisfail, recorded 46mm in 30 minutes.

"From the overnight period, 60mm at Redbank Creek, which is up towards the north-east tropical coast, is actually the top total we've seen since 9am yesterday morning, but we've also seen plenty of lightning activity across the state with some large-to-giant-sized hail," Ms Bradbury said.

"Storms are most likely to continue across inland parts of the Capricornia all the way down to the New South Wales border on Wednesday.

"It's just another day where we should be keeping an eye on the rain radar to see how those storms develop through the afternoon and keeping it on the bureau's website in case we do need to issue any warnings."

On Wednesday morning, 96mm was recorded at Gregory Downs in the Gulf in the hour to 6.23am.

From hail to heatwave

It was a different story across the western and south-western parts of the state, with dry and hot conditions set to continue.

Mount Isa is tipped to reach a top of 41 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, Birdsville 44 degrees, and Longreach 43.

The heatwave conditions continued in the state's south-west on Tuesday with the outback town of Thargomindah exceeding 44 degrees.

The town has experienced hot and dry conditions for much of the summer, recording just 18 millimetres of rain and nine days of temperatures above 40 degrees since the beginning of December.

Bulloo Shire Mayor John Ferguson said the lack of rain had been a concern for property owners.

"It's about a 50-kilometre radius or a bit more that's totally missed out [on rain], and it's getting dry," Cr Ferguson said.

"If you get too many of these [44] degree days, even where there's been good feed, it's not going to last long."

A severe heatwave warning on Wednesday morning remained in place for the North Tropical Coast and Tablelands, Herbert and Lower Burdekin, Central Coast and Whitsundays, Capricornia, Central Highlands and Coalfields, Central West, North West, Channel Country and Maranoa and Warrego Districts.

Races called off

A race meeting in Emerald on the Central Highlands fell victim to the wild weather on Tuesday afternoon.

The race day was called off two races into its program after officials deemed the track unsafe due to water on the track from overnight rain.

Ironically, the Emerald Jockey Club's corresponding race day in January last year was abandoned due to a heatwave.

A Racing Queensland (RQ) spokesperson said the decision was made after discussions with stewards and jockeys.

It comes after the Magic Millions Race Day was abandoned last weekend due to a heavy deluge.