Woman fights for life after tree falls on her due to 87 km/h winds, hail and flash floods on SEQ

Australia is set to see an abundance of clear blue skies and hot weather this summer, but alongside this record heat, widespread bushfires and sudden droughts are also expected to affect the country. The Bureau of Meteorology officially announced that Australia was experiencing El Niño weather patterns around mid-September. This comes after the La Niña phenomenon brought three consecutive summers of record rains and devastating floods. Australia is bracing for its most active fire season since the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/20.

It is understood a gust caused the tree to fall on the woman at a property in Lockyer Waters at around 5.45pm.

The woman was seriously injured and is fighting for her life.

Storms in the area downed power lines – leaving 2,300 people without power in the Lockyer Valley – and traffic accidents were also reported, as high winds, hail and short, sharp rainfall created a risk of flash flooding in the area.

Met Office spokeswoman Kimba Wong said Gatun’s winds reached 87 kilometers per hour, and 22 millimeters of rain fell on Laidley in just 10 minutes.

“The storms are moving in, which is a good sign, but the rain is falling very quickly, which means there is a possibility of flash flooding,” Ms Wong said.

“The storm system is moving north-northeast and large hailstones are certainly on the horizon, some of which have already been reported in Crows Nest.”

The system was moving toward the northeast, and Ms. Wong said the storm exceeded meteorologists’ expectations.

She added: “During the next two hours, this system will continue to move and there is a possibility that it will hit Brisbane, which was not expected before it crossed the New South Wales border.”

As of 5:15 p.m., severe thunderstorms were detected on weather radar near the area south of Esk.

These thunderstorms were moving northwards and were expected to affect Esk, Somerset Lake, Linville by 5:45pm, Kilcoy, Mt Kilcoy and the area east of Nanango by 6:15pm.

Damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rains will likely cause flash flooding.

A separate, more general severe thunderstorm warning has also been issued for residents in the Wide Bay, Burnett, South East Coast, Darling Downs and Granite Belt areas.

Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds, large hail, and heavy rain that could lead to flash flooding in the warning area over the next few hours.

Locations that may be affected include Crows Nest, Yarraman, Esk and Kilcoy.