Severe Storms Hit SE Qld, NE NSW

Firstly, looking at today's thunderstorm outlook map, you can see there's two main areas of concern storm wise. Firstly, in South Australia, western New South Wales and north-western Victoria. In this yellow highlighted area, we could see damaging winds with some severe storms developing there this afternoon due to the hot, dry and windy conditions.

But of most concern are residents and communities in south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales, where all the ingredients are coming together where we could see high end, intense thunderstorms and supercell thunderstorms. So what I mean by that is if you live in this red highlighted area, or know someone that does, we are likely to see not only severe thunderstorms but highly organised thunderstorms capable of producing giant hail in excess of 5 cm in diameter. And yesterday we saw hailstones up to 8 cm in diameter south of Brisbane, and that is likely again today.

We could also see some of the most organised storms producing destructive winds up to and exceeding 125 km/hr, and that is easily enough to cause widespread damage. And this yellow highlighted area could also see severe storms with large hail, damaging winds and heavy rainfall.

So some of those impacts, so let's time this out first before we get to impacts. Showers and storms will develop around the border ranges in those early afternoon and then become quite widespread through north-east New South Wales and south-east Queensland into the mid afternoon and early evening hours. And that's when we are likely to see some of the most intense storms from north-east New South Wales, south-east Queensland and parts of the Wide Bay-Burnett. And some of these storms will reach the highly populated coastal parts of Queensland and New South Wales as well.

But we do see a quick clearance as the storms contract into the Wide Bay-Burnett overnight and then quickly ease off as we move through Tuesday. And some of these impacts are likely to include hail in excess of 5 cm, even up to 8 cm, possibly higher, in diameter, and that hail is easily enough to cause damage to homes and properties and smash cars as well. So make sure you bring your car under cover.

Wind damage, once we start talking about winds in excess of 100 km/hr, is easily strong enough to bring down trees and powerlines, cause power outages and cause some property damage. As we move into the evening hours, we will see the storms come together and produce possible areas of heavy rainfall, and that could lead to some flash flooding as well through parts of the Wide Bay-Burnett and maybe north-eastern parts of south-east Queensland coastal areas.

But then we do it all again tomorrow, Tuesday, another day of widespread showers and thunderstorms, some likely severe in north-east New South Wales and south-east Queensland, with another round of large hail, damaging winds and heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding. That threat extends a fair way inland as well on Tuesday.

Looking at that in more detail, it looks like we could see more of a focus through our inland areas on Tuesday, and we might escape some of the more intense storms on the coast, but we could still see one or two of those storms move into the coastal plain as we get into late afternoon on Tuesday. But note much more widespread activity across our inland parts of New South Wales and south-east Queensland on Tuesday, with some of those storms possibly moving towards the coastal areas as we get into Tuesday evening.

Then even on Wednesday we see another round of severe storms across much of eastern Queensland and north-east New South Wales, and another weather system could bring severe storms to southern Victoria and parts of South Australia, including the Melbourne metropolitan area.

With a big week of severe thunderstorms on the way through parts of Australia, make sure you stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings via our website and app. You can track the storms on radar, and remember to listen to all emergency services if you are impacted by a severe storm. And please stay safe.