Severe thunderstorms bringing hail and strong winds have passed over parts of south-east Queensland after wild weather raged through the night, bringing down powerlines.
Parts of the Sunshine Coast were peppered by hail, with stones up to 10 centimetres in diameter reported at Anderleigh, north of Gympie. Yandina, Kilcoy, Nambour and Eumundi also received hail.
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) senior forecaster Felim Hanniffy said the intense storm cells had created a "very unstable environment" in areas north of Maroochydore such as Coolum, Noosa and Gympie.
BOM issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Gympie and Noosa Council areas, and a warning was issued in parts of the Central West, Capricornia and Wide Bay and Burnett.
All storm warnings have now been cancelled.
'Really surreal': Mum describes intensity and pace of storm
Sarah Rollins from Eerwah Vale on the Sunshine Coast said the afternoon storm was one of the most intense and fast-moving storms she had experienced.
"Within, I think, literally five minutes of the first raindrops, we're seeing massive gusts of wind and huge hail stones falling from the sky," she said.
"I have never seen that intensity of wind and rain sort of just blow up that fast over the dam before.
"A super intense experience for all of us."
Ms Rollins said she saw a weather warning on social media and decided to pick up her children from school early.
"I'm so glad that I got there and got them 20 minutes early, because I would have been driving home in that which would have been really scary," she said.
"I actually looked outside for one moment and saw massive fork lightning, it must have hit fairly close to where we were and really, really intense thunder… as well.
She said the hailstones were at least 6 centimetres, with the storm lasting around 15 minutes.
"And now the sun's out, so it's really surreal."
Sally Bloomfield, the State Emergency Service area controller for the Sunshine Coast, said there had been 29 local requests for assistance since midnight.
"The majority of those jobs are related to trees coming down because of the wind and the ground being wet," she said.
Gympie mayor Glen Hartwig said he had heard reports "golf ball-sized hail" in areas around Gympie.
"There's most likely to be some significant damage out there and possibly trees down, so people will need to… drive with a bit of care."
