WILD WEATHER
What it’s like inside the Q1 when electrical storms hammer the city.
AS the tallest building on the Gold Coast, the Q1 is used to bearing the brunt of electrical storms that hit the city.
The 322.5m-high building was struck six times during Tuesday night’s spectacular lightning storm, making for incredible photo opportunities.
But what exactly happens when the building’s spire gets hit by lightning?
Richie Gray, the Q1’s assistant to the general manager, said the southern hemisphere’s tallest residential tower was well-equipped to handle a large number of lightning hits.
“The spire is in place to direct the lightning and send it down into the earth,” he said.
The building is supported by 26 piles, each two metres in diameter, that extend 40 metres into the ground passing through up to four metres of solid rock.
“For people in the building, the sound can be quite loud and startling when it gets hit, but there is never any danger associated with it,” he said.
“People in the top floors report hearing loud sounds when lightning hits.”
Ambulance, police and fire crews were called to the Q1 after reports of smoke coming from the top of the building in Surfers Paradise on Sunday night.
However, Mr Gray said it was a false alarm and was actually steam created from the building’s cooling tower.
It appeared to look like smoke when illuminated during the lightning display.
The Gold Coast has been smashed by more than 35,939 lightning strikes since Sunday as the city continues to be battered by thunderstorms, with 8000 lightning strikes during last night’s wild weather.
The storms will linger until the weekend before subsiding – only to return again next week.
A Weatherzone spokesman said a slow moving low pressure trough was “hanging around” causing the cluster of thunderstorms.
“There is still a lot of moisture around and we’re feeling that with the humidity.”
Temperatures will continue to stay in the low 30Cs all this week and into next week with a top of 33C today with humidity peaking at 78 per cent.
The Coast can expect a possibility of 1mm of rain each day for the next week.