North Queensland residents have been shocked to find hailstones falling in Townsville as a heatwave grips the region.
The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed isolated reports of hail throughout the north during a thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon.
Forecaster Peter Clarson said the storm was "incredible".
"There wasn't too much rain in it but there were some isolated reports of hail including as far north as Kuranda," he said.
"It's not something we see often at all."
Mr Clarson said hailstorms were particularly rare in areas such as Townsville.
"It is to do with how warm it is obviously over the far north and the freezing levels of the atmosphere," he said.
"Down south we see freezing levels around 11,000 feet, in the far north it is more like 15,000 feet.
"There is more atmosphere that those hailstones are falling though and more time for them to melt as they fall to the ground."
Hot on the ground, freezing in the air
Meteorologist Helen Reid said the hail was a reflection of what was happening in the atmosphere.
"It's a frozen temperature in the atmosphere and those water droplets have formed into hail," she said.
"Then they've got into such a size of hail stone that even when they melt on the way down we get some small hail down at the surface."
Hottest day since March
North Queensland has sweltered through an extreme heatwave this week, which is expected to persist through the weekend.
Mr Clarson said the hailstones fell on one of the hottest days of the year.
"Yesterday was the warmest day in Townsville since March and it looks like it will be a repeat of that again today," he said.
"The heat continues over the weekend, may ease back slightly but it's not until late next week that we're likely to see the next major ridge build."
Temperatures were expected to reach 34 degrees in Townsville on Friday, but Ms Reid said another surprise hail storm was unlikely.
"We're expecting to see the sunshine continuing apart from the odd storm," she said.
"And those temperatures will still be on the warm end of the scale ... they won't be easing anytime soon so be mindful of heatwave conditions.
The temperatures are well and truly above what you'd expect for October, it all just adds up to think this could almost be summer."
