Wild storms have lashed south-east Queensland, with some areas receiving a month's worth of rain in a single night while other areas have been pummelled with unseasonal hail.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said the heaviest storms were recorded on the Gold Coast, which recorded 150 millimetres of rainfall.
There have been reports of minor flash flooding on the Gold Coast this morning affecting peak-hour commuters on the M1 as water spilled over the road, causing traffic delays.
The Gold Coast City Council has activated its Local Disaster Coordination Centre in response, but has decided not to open its sandbagging stations as conditions are expected to ease later on Tuesday.
Emergency services said three dogs had been washed off the Weedons Crossing Bridge in Nerang this morning.
Crews were able to retrieve two of the dogs but a black labrador retriever remains missing.
The Loder Creek Dam received 155mm since 9:00am Monday, 146mm at Molendinar and 128mm at Carrara.
The Sunshine Coast and Brisbane also recorded decent totals of 50-80mm.
Senior forecaster Felim Hannify said the weather event was "a shock to the system".
"It's been pretty dry over much of the south-east so far this year," he said.
Large hail in Toowoomba
Toowoomba in southern Queensland received over a month's worth of rain in one night, recording 40-60mm.
There were reports of small to large sized hail in Toowoomba on Monday night, with the BOM trying to confirm the reports.
Toowoomba resident Beverley Spence said the storm was deafening.
"It was absolutely teeming down with pea-sized hail," she said.
"My front lawn was just snow-white for about an hour after it fell.
"The damage it did to my garden — my poor begonias are looking very sad this morning."
Brisbane's highest rainfall in a year
The storms were caused by a trough system along the south-east Queensland coast, Mr Hannify said.
"A little low [pressure system] formed in the trough. That's what helped drive all that rainfall," he said.
"The whole system though is moving south and going to push off the coast."
The downpour was Brisbane's highest amount of rain in one event since May 2022, Mr Hannify said.
"This system has probably been the first real decent rain event for the south-east probably since at least last October when we had a similar set-up," he said.
The weather across south-east Queensland is expected to ease from today, with dry conditions forecast for the rest of the week and a return to cool mornings.
"We could get some chance of frost returning to parts of the southern and south-east interior for the second half of the week," Mr Hannify said.
