Weather bureau warns of hail, flash floods and tornadoes as storms hit Queensland and northern NSW | Australia weather

Destructive winds, giant hail, flash floods and tornadoes could wreak havoc on southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned.

A major band of severe thunderstorms was bearing down on Australia’s east coast on Saturday, senior BoM forecaster Angus Hines said.

Large hailstones 5cm to 8cm in diameter fell on parts of Queensland on Friday and Hines said it was likely there would be more to come.

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“Severe thunderstorms can really pack a punch, they could bring a wide array of severe weather,” Hines told the ABC on Saturday.

“We could see heavy or intense rainfall now that can lead to areas of flooding and road closures.”

Hines said the storms would bring damaging and destructive winds and “the potential is there for some of these really big thunderstorms to spawn one or two tornadoes today”.

“Now that’s not something that we warn for all the time,” Hines said. “It’s pretty uncommon to see those tornado systems around Australia, so the fact that we’re even mentioning it tells us this is a really high end, severe thunderstorm outbreak.

“There’s going to be a lot of stress on the power network, particularly a chance for power outages.”

The storms were expected to continue throughout Saturday evening and into Sunday in some areas.

The Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Noosa Heads and inland up through the Burnett region were in the firing line, Hines said.

Kingaroy, Gympie, as far north as Biloela and as far west as Roma – including the Darling Downs centres of Toowoomba, Dalby and Warwick – were all likely in for a rough time.

In NSW, the impact zone included Tamworth, Glen Innes and across to Moree, while there was a chance some storm activity would reach major coastal communities including Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Grafton, Ballina, Lismore and Byron Bay.

“There’s lots of places and, more importantly, lots of people that could be impacted by severe thunderstorms later on today and, if that happens, some of the impacts could get pretty serious,” Hines said.

The dire forecast follows Thursday’s fatal lightning strike on the Sunshine Coast.

Finley Bone, 21, was fatally hit by the bolt during soccer training at Cooroy. She was transported to Nambour hospital in a critical condition but could not be revived.

The tragedy unfolded after the Bureau of Meteorology’s radar crashed as severe storms struck the region. Radar images briefly failed to update on its website and the BoM weather app.

The bureau has faced heavy criticism after the launch of its new website on 22 October, three weeks after the official beginning of storm season in Queensland.