Queensland
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Queensland

Brisbane super storm: 30,000 homes lose power, 100 km/h winds and teen struck by lightning

A 17-year-old boy was taken to hospital on Saturday afternoon after being struck by lightning in the Darling Downs town of Allora.

Police said the boy had put his hand on a metal door handle when he was struck about 4.40pm but escaped serious injury.

Up Next

Free the nipple picnic to 'raise awareness'

null
Video duration
01:13

More QLD News Videos

null
Video duration
01:13

Storm alerts come too late
null
Video duration
01:13

Free the nipple picnic to 'raise ...
null
Video duration
01:20

Beach caravan park to go

null
Video duration
01:04

Manslaughter charges 'very unfair'
null
Video duration
02:19

Five on one: police arrest
More videos

Storm alerts come too late

Brisbane City Council is looking into an early warning system which failed to alert Brisbane residents to Saturday's storm until after it had passed. 7 News Queensland

The lightning strike occurred as a wild cell of storms passed through the region and across to the coast on Saturday afternoon.

A home in Petrie was "extensively damaged" when it caught fire during the storm, about 6.45pm, needing multiple crews to extinguish the flames and protect neighbouring properties.

Related Content

A local resident told News Corp there was a lightning strike shortly before she smelled smoke but fire investigators said it was too early to speculate on a cause.

Forecasters were saying south-east Queensland  could be in for a repeat of Saturday's super storms on Sunday.

Advertisement

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Janine Yuasa said there was a moderate chance of thunderstorms for areas inland of the Gold Coast and a slight chance of the storms reaching western and southern areas of Brisbane.

Temperatures were expected to remain in the forties for parts of Queensland with Birdsville expecting a top of 42 on Sunday after reached 46 degrees the day before.

A pair of dangerous, super cell storms marched toward Brisbane on Saturday afternoon creating winds in excess of 100 km/h, leaving 30,000 homes without power and sending a teenage boy to hospital after being struck by lightning.

Flights at Brisbane Airport were delayed for as long as two hours, Gold Coast beaches were closed and the State Emergency Service was sent to about 80 jobs.

Ms Yuasa said the super cell tracked north through the Wide Bay region throughout Saturday evening before pushing off the Gladstone coast about 2am on Sunday.

Harrisville, 25 kilometres south of Ipswich, recorded 72 millimetres of rain and Kooralbyn, 27 kilometres south-west of Beaudesert, received 61.

Ms Yuasa said about 40 millimetres fell in just 30 minutes at Mount Suagrloaf and Round Mountain, west of the Gold Coast in between Beaudesert and Boonah.

While the rainfall totals may not have been as impressive, the wind certainly made up for it.

Gusts of more than 100 km/h swept through Dalby while Amberley and Gatton saw about 90 km/h.

Energex crews were kept busy throughout Saturday evening and into Sunday morning, with power outages peaking at 30,000 before dropping down to less than 2,000 by 9am.

They pulled an all-nighter with SES crews who responded to calls for help mostly in Logan, Scenic Rim, Ipswich and Sunshine Coast with leaking roofs, minor flooding and fallen trees the problems.

There was a scary near-miss for one Logan lady and her partner as she captured a terrifying lightning strike on film, believed to be less than 50 metres away.

Hail fell at Boonah in the Scenic Rim and many places in Brisbane's south but other suburbs were left with little more than a light and wind show, followed by a stunning orange sunset.

As the storm passed through Cedar Grove in Logan, Angela Grundy and partner Luke were putting the car back in the shed when they stopped to film the weather.

All of a sudden, there's a flash, a crack, a loud scream and the phone goes down.

"It was super close," Ms Grundy said.

"Originally we thought it was about 50m away but looking back through the video frame by frame it was much, much closer."

The sticky conditions come after five people were hospitalised up until Friday due to the heat, while a boy was hit by a falling tree and a woman struck by lightning

Thursday saw hail the size of tennis balls fall in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, as wild weather lashed the State.

Stay informed. Like the Brisbane Times Facebook page.

Advertisement