Storms are likely to hit communities north of Brisbane again today, brining intense falls of up to 150 millimetres in a "short duration", the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) warns.
Senior forecaster Felim Hanniffy said the Sunshine Coast, Wide Bay, Capricornia and parts of the Central Highlands are likely to be in the firing line this afternoon and early this evening.
Mr Hanniffy said the storm activity is expected to ease to just showers over the weekend.
However, coastal areas south of Cairns are likely to experience strong winds, rough surf and elevated tides.
A gale-force wind warning has been issued for the Gold Coast and strong winds are expected for Moreton Bay, the Sunshine Coast and Fraser Coast.
Over the next few days, beachgoers have been asked to be aware of rips and strong undertows.
"Even though tides are receding somewhat over the weekend, they're likely to still remain elevated," Mr Hanniffy said.
Mr Hanniffy said conditions across the south-east will be far cooler from this afternoon into the next few days as a trough "flushes out" persisting humid conditions.
The south-east has endured days of sweltering heat — with temperatures in the low 30 degrees Celsius but apparent temperatures as high as 40 degrees Celsius, due to the humidity.
Overnight, large parts of Western Queensland received widespread rain.
Mr Hanniffy said a trough was sitting in the west of the state, bringing shower and storm activity to the region.
In 24 hours, Quilpe had between 20 to 40 millimetres and north to Charleville had up to 50mm.
"It's pretty saturated, given that we had quite a lot of activity last week as well," he said.
"It will likely take some time yet for the river systems to drop back below minor to moderate flooding."
Drier conditions are returning to the areas, and would continue into much of next week.
There is an initial flood watch from this afternoon for Burrum and Cherwell Rivers, Mary River, Logan and Albert Rivers, Condamine Rivers, Macintyre River, Weir River, Moonie River, Balonne River as well as Wallam and Mungallala Creeks.
Hospital evacuated in yesterday's wild weather
Heavy rain in the Noosa hinterland forced a private hospital to move 17 patients overnight as the building's roof buckled in the storm and was deemed unsound.
Eden Private Hospital in Cooroy relocated the patients with the help of the Queensland Ambulance Service.
Karen Williamson's 91-year-old father Allan was taken to Buderim Hospital.
He has been in hospital since September after getting one of his big toes amputated.
"Kudos to the staff and kudos to the ambulance crews who had to do all this at what knows time of the night," she said.
"He would have been deep in sleep, not aware of what was going on."
Ms Williamson was yet to speak to her father and said the hospital reception was "snowed under" with family enquiries.
"He will live to 100. Nothing is going to get that man down. He is a survivor," she said.
Cooroy received 108mm of rain since 9:00am yesterday and Black Mountain, to the west, had 112mm.
Justin Coomber from Energex said nearly 3,000 homes lost power in the storms, with most reconnected by morning.
About 173,000 lightning strikes were recorded in the region.
"The storms really did pack a punch," he said.
"We had a lot of tree branches coming down onto powerlines because of the high wind," Mr Coomber said.
"There were little blackouts of 10, 20 seconds or so and that's where a tree branch hits a powerline and falls off.
"The system has safety mechanisms and it resets and then the power comes back on, but some other customers were a bit unlucky."
