- Thunderstorms to lash east coast on Thursday afternoon
A huge 1,400 kilometre stretch of land across Australia’s east coast is set to be lashed by thunderstorms, with large hail forecast to hammer down on parts of Queensland.
The Bureau of Meteorology warned those living along the coast from NSW’s Illawarra region up to Queensland’s Wide Bay are in the firing line for thunderstorms on Thursday.
‘Severe storms with large hail, damaging winds and heavy rain possible about south-east Queensland and the Wide Bay. A risk of very dangerous storms inland,’ the bureau’s Queensland department tweeted.
Severe thunderstorms are also possible along the northern half of the NSW ranges and adjacent coastal areas.
Central and eastern Australia is set to be lashed with wet weather over the next week
The miserable weather is set to continue for up to the next ten days, Weatherzone said, with central and eastern Australia to cop the worst of it.
‘The bulk of the rain and storms will initially focus on central Australia, northern and western SA and southern WA between this Wednesday and Friday, with a bit of wet weather also affecting parts of Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and QLD,’ the weather service said.
‘From the weekend, a deepening low pressure trough should allow showers and thunderstorms to become more active over eastern Australia.’
The Bureau of Meteorology warned those living along the coast from NSW ‘s Illawarra region up to Queensland’s Wide Bay are in the firing line for thunderstorms on Thursday
The wet and stormy weather will continue into the first half of next week, with every state and territory expected to receive some rain.
Heavy falls are possible over NSW, Queensland and central Australia.
‘Some of the coming week’s thunderstorms are likely to become severe and heavy rain could cause flash flooding in some states,’ Weatherzone said.
The wet conditions come at the same time as a heatwave sweeping across central and inland Queensland.
Longreach, in central QLD, was as hot as 44C on Thursday – 8C higher above the November average temperature.
Last Friday a woman was killed when a tree fell on her during catastrophic weather in Queensland’s south-east.
The 70-year-old is understood to have been walking outside when she was struck by the tree in Lockyer Waters, just before 6pm on Friday.
Paramedics desperately tried to save the woman for over an hour but she died at the scene.
The severe weather in the Lockyer Valley left more than 2,000 people without power as heavy wind, rain and hail lashed down.
More to come
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