Roaring water spout and lightning make for wild weekend
A ROARING water spout, spectacular lightning strikes, wild winds and heavy rain: it's been some weekend in Queensland and New South Wales.
As severe storms battered the south and northeast of New South Wales over the weekend, a water spout appeared off Long Beach, at Batemans Bay on the south coast about 2pm on Sunday - lasting about 15 minutes.
Bureau of Meteorology experts say water spouts can reach speeds of up to 160km/h.
A southerly change coupled with a looming thunderstorm is believed to have created the spout.
The Weather Channel said dangerous supercell thunderstorms which erupted over southeast Queensland during the weekend had now eased.
During the peak of the storm on Saturday night, Energex reported 22,000 lightning strikes in about three hours.
"However, a trough of low pressure which triggered the initial uplift for thunderstorms has now moved north which has allowed storms to dissipate overnight but the trough will still trigger thunderstorms this afternoon over Queensland in regions north of Fraser Island,'' senior meteorologist Tom Saunders said.
"For southeast Queensland isolated thunderstorms are still possible Monday afternoon near the coastal fringe but storms will be less widespread compared to the weekend due to a reduction in wind shear and lack of a strong trigger.''
"By Tuesday storms are no longer likely through southeast Queensland but a few storms will still develop over central parts of the state.''
Some notable weather observations from the weekend include:
Saturday
Coffs Harbour 160mm, heaviest rain in three years
Smoky Cape 70mm
Kelvin Grove 124mm
Gatton 95mm, including 15mm in 10 minutes
Brisbane 64mm, heaviest rain in seven months
Sunday
Cape Moreton 52mm, including 29mm in 10 minutes
Cape Moreton wind gust of 113 km/h
Golf ball to tennis ball sized hail at Toowong
6cm hail at Ipswich
9cm hail at Boonah
