After storms brought giant hail to the Gold Coast yesterday, severe weather is forecast for the North Queensland coast into the weekend. Photo: Peter Martin / Supplied via ABC News
More than 1700 residents remain without power after a storm with winds possibly stronger than 90km/h fell trees north of Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
Debris blocked road access in places between Gympie and Maryborough while some residents captured dramatic vision of trees being uprooted outside rural homes.
Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson Patch Clapp said the winds were likely to have been about 70km/h.
"It's possible that we saw damaging wind gusts above 90km/h too with some of that damage seen through the Gympie region," he said.
More storms for central coast into Gulf
Possible storms are forecast throughout the Far Northern Peninsula and Gulf Country on Friday 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," 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," 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."
A powerful storm felled trees and brought down powerlines across Brisbane on Thursday. Photo: ABC News / Ned Hammond
'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 40C.
"We're seeing a forecast top of 37C for Townsville today, Mackay 34C and in Cairns another day of 35C," 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.
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."
- ABC News
