Storms that moved across south-east Queensland on Saturday afternoon, dumping significant rainfall, have brought welcome relief from muggy conditions.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning just before 3pm on Saturday, with heavy rainfall forecast as the storms cell moved north-east towards the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
The severe system was expected to affect the area west of Kilcoy and Linville by mid-afternoon and Kilcoy, Mount Kilcoy and the area west of Conondale later in the day. Meanwhile Brisbane was expecting showers and a cool change.
Fifty-one millimetres was recorded in 30 minutes near Lake Wivenhoe, north-east of Brisbane, meanwhile Beaudesert, south of Brisbane, received just under 50 millimetres in two hours. Kilcoy, north-east of Brisbane, also saw 85 millimetres fall in the two hours to 4pm.
The storm activity was forecast to continue into the afternoon and evening before moving towards the Wide Bay and Burnett region.
Winds were gusty towards the coast, reaching 30-40 kilometres an hour, but the heavy rain and possible flash flooding were the main threats.
However, the winds and rainfall were a welcomed sight for weary firefighters in Coolum.
The warm and humid northerly winds which had hampered their efforts to extinguish the fire were replaced by cooler south-easterly gusts.
The rainfall also helped, after a day of declaring and revoking emergency situations and keeping local residents on-edge.
Looking ahead, Sunday would see a cool change sweep across the south-east and central parts of the state, a welcome change after Brisbane recorded its equal hottest January night, with the temperature only dropping to 28 degrees overnight on Friday.
Moving into next week, cooler temperatures are expected to remain on Monday with generally fine conditions across much of southern Queensland.
However, temperatures are expected to pick up again from Tuesday onwards, but maximums are not going to be as bad as what Queensland endured in the last week.
