Lithgow hospital briefly lost power on Wednesday as “dangerous” thunderstorms continued to rumble across eastern Australia, with giant hail and flash flooding on the cards for several areas according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
It issued severe weather warnings for Queensland and New South Wales forecasting “isolated very dangerous storms are possible about south-east Queensland and north-east NSW which may bring destructive winds, giant hail and intense rain leading to flash flooding”. A warning for Victoria was issued but cancelled.
Jonathan How, a meteorologist at the BoM, said the most serious storms would be across south-east Queensland and north-east NSW including Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Lismore and areas inland from Ballina.
“We could see isolated very dangerous thunderstorms, and it’s these supercell thunderstorms which could deliver destructive winds, giant hail with diameter greater than 5cm as well as intense rainfall leading to flash flooding,” How said.
While the bureau’s map showed Sydneysiders would be spared, senior meteorologist Angus Hines said there was a risk of thunderstorms for Lismore and its surrounds, the very far north east including Coolangatta and Tweed Heads, as well as the Upper Hunter area around Scone, and around the Southern Tablelands to the east of the ACT.
“We’ve seen a few places pick up approximately 30 millimetres of rain in 30 minutes, which is certainly enough to cause localised areas of flash flooding,” Hines said.
The extreme weather came as a number of low pressure troughs over Australia were interacting with very warm and humid air coming in from the oceans surrounding Australia, which were warmer than average for the time of year.
Weatherzone predicted the conditions could cause around 10m lightning strikes across the country by the weekend.
Hailstones between 3 and 4cm have been recorded at Parkes, in NSW’s central west region, the suburb of Goonellabah in Lismore on New South Wales’ Northern Rivers region and Kooralbyn in Queensland’s Scenic Rim Region, Hines said.
Due to storms, the power went out at Lithgow hospital in NSW’s central tablelands, a spokesperson confirmed, but generators kicked in within 10 seconds and hospital services were not affected. The power had been restored, the spokesperson added.
The Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said wind gusts of 70-80km/h had been recorded at Parkes, Tamworth and Bathurst in NSW, and 91km/h at Warwick in Queensland, with rainfall totals of 10-30mm with storms in both states.
A severe weather warning had been issued for Victoria but was later cancelled as the BoM said “thunderstorms with heavy falls have now eased in the east of the state”.
