Australia Weather News

A micro-burst in Brisbane and severe storms throughout regional Queensland cut power to thousands of homes late Thursday leaving many sweltering in heatwave conditions.

Hundreds of properties remain without power Friday morning particularly north of the Sunshine Coast where damaging winds were detected.

Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson Patch Clapp said damage seen in the Gympie region could have been caused by a micro-burst similar to what Brisbane experienced yesterday.

"It's possible that we saw damaging wind gusts above 90 kilometres an hour too with some of that damage seen through the Gympie region," he said. 

"It could be a micro-burst."

More storms for central coast into Gulf

Possiblestorms are forecast for Friday throughout the Far Northern Peninsula and Gulf Country after "unusual" hail activity on Thursday.

The Gold Coast experienced large to giant hailstones while a rare occurrence of hail was sighted in Cairns. 

"It is a rare occurrence, a couple of times a year, in the tropics that hail is falling through much warmer air, it isn't too common that we see hail on the ground," Mr Clapp said.  

He said there had been reports of hail one to two centimetres in size reaching the ground in Cairns.

From Ayr south to Mackay will be a watch point for the Bureau with severe weather expected. 

"We're watching for severe storms about the central and north Queensland coast," Mr Clapp said. 

"North of Ingham, through the Peninsula and along the Gulf coastline all the way to the NT border, we're likely to see some storm activity."

'Microburst' clean-up in Brisbane

An intense storm carved a narrow path through Brisbane's south and east on Thursday afternoon, cutting power to thousands of homes.

The storm, deemed a "microburst" by the Bureau of Meteorology, brought down trees at Carina Heights and nearby suburbs.

One struck a home, while another landed on a car.

North Queensland heatwave to linger

The weather bureau's latest heatwave advice says extreme to severe heatwave conditions will persist on Friday, particularly along Queensland's north and far north coast as well as the Tablelands region. 

Temperatures along the eastern coast and adjacent ranges are likely to peak in the mid to high 30s.

The heat has eased in western and southern Queensland but those regions remain in the midst of a low-intensity heatwave. 

Charters Towers, west of Townsville, is due to host the southern hemisphere's largest amateur cricket carnival, The Goldfield Ashes, from Friday with the mercury to hit 40 degrees. 

"We're seeing a forecast top of 37 for Townsville today, Mackay 34 and in Cairns another day of 35," Mr Clapp said. 

"Those east coast regions continue to see temperatures above average in conjunction with high humidity."

Weekend weather watch

The Tablelands region in Far North Queensland received rainfall totals of about 60mm on Thursday afternoon.

But the weather bureau said most shower activity was concentrated in New South Wales where a low was developing. 

Mr Clapp said the weekend weather was not expected to be as severe as what Queenslanders had faced this week. 

"We're still watching storms through northern parts of the state through the weekend, fairly typical storms for this time of year," he said. 

"It is gradually easing in those heatwave conditions."