Giant hailstones battered Australia’s east coast as a powerful spring storm swept through Queensland, leaving about 95,000 homes without power and disrupting transport services.
The Bureau of Meteorology said Brisbane recorded hailstones as large as 14cm overnight that damaged cars, roofs and solar panels as the storm system caused 100kph winds and over 800,000 lightning strikes.
The bureau classifies as “giant hail” stones larger than 5cm across. The 14cm hail is rare, but a couple of centimetres short of the record.
Energy distributor Energex said heavy winds brought down 600 power lines, causing widespread blackouts.
Some 162,000 properties lost electricity at the height of the storm, and 95,000 were still without by Tuesday morning, according to local media.
Repairs were expected to continue into Wednesday given the scale of the damage and difficult access in areas blocked by fallen trees.
The wild weather, which struck on Monday, caused what officials described as “another very active thunderstorm day”, with two homes losing their roofs and more than 2,200 emergency calls for help.
Winds tore roofs from homes and huge hail damaged solar panels and cars as ferocious storms ripped through South East Queensland. Authorities say the destructive weather will be worse than Cyclone Alfred. @mhammond7 pic.twitter.com/XRLyXQetxe
— 7NEWS Queensland (@7NewsBrisbane) November 24, 2025
Rail services across southeast Queensland were heavily disrupted after falling trees and power lines blocked tracks, with delays continuing into Tuesday morning. Eleven schools were closed for repairs while dozens more reported technology outages linked to the storm damage.
Forecasters said more storms were likely on Tuesday across southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales, with high humidity and increasing temperatures expected to fuel instability.
The bureau said a band of thunderstorms would pass over Queensland, NSW, and parts of Victoria and Tasmania.
National Weather Forecast for Wednesday 26 November 2025: Hot with thunderstorms for northern and eastern #Australia. Extreme to catastrophic fire dangers forecast for parts of southern and eastern NSW.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) November 25, 2025
Current: 5:30pm AEDT 25 November 2025.
Latest: https://t.co/4W35o8i7wJ pic.twitter.com/DcYDKhGxYi
"Severe storms are still expected today across much of the southeast," senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury told the national broadcaster ABC.
"We're seeing a very similar set-up today to what we had yesterday."
Ms Bradbury said the weather would not be "quite as intense" as on Tuesday, meaning the risk of "giant-sized hail is a little bit reduced compared to yesterday".
Several areas of Queensland are under extreme heatwave warnings, meanwhile, with temperatures expected to exceed 40C in the north. Authorities are urging residents in affected regions to stay indoors and prepare for further service disruptions as crews work to restore power through late Wednesday.
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