STORMS BRING RAIN
TORRENTIAL rain and hail were the hallmarks of yesterday’s storms, which battered parts of the Darling Downs and south-west.
Videos from residents captured the moment a squall unleashed hail in Roma about 2pm, at the same time a “very dangerous” thunderstorm was tracking a path through the South Burnett.
The Bureau of Meteorology said wind speeds of up to 122km/h were recorded in Roma at 1.39pm.
A morning storm cell in Toowoomba saw 1500 North Toowoomba residents left without power, prompting Ergon to undertake emergency repairs.
Parts of Harlaxton, Kearneys Spring, Blue Mountain Heights and surrounding suburbs were impacted by the outage.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Livio Regano said a break in the weather yesterday afternoon only served to strengthen the storms, which were “hit or miss” in nature.
“Cloud tends to suppress thunderstorms, but as soon as the cloud breaks up you only need an hour of sun and off it goes,” Mr Regano said.
He said it was likely the storms and showers would continue into next week.
“The upper trough will be
moving off the coast (today), which means there will be bits of drizzle but it will be a bit clearer,” he said.
“However, a new upper level trough will move in from the west after that, which will be stronger and broader than
the last – every day will be volatile.
“It’s slow moving and is likely to anchor itself over us
and it might bring rain and storms for days.”
For weather updates visit bom.gov.au.