South-east Queensland has been lashed by winds up to 61km/h overnight, cancelling flights for a third day and cutting power in several suburbs, as a low-pressure system lingers off the Australian coast.
The Bureau of Meteorology forecast westerly winds of up to 45km/h for Brisbane on Thursday, and sunny skies, before winds would decrease to as low as 15km/h at night.
Almost 600 properties were without power in the Gold Coast hinterland, with some residents in Springbrook saying the lights had been off since 3pm on Wednesday.
It comes months after Cyclone Alfred left families in Springbrook without power, and cut off by fallen trees, for more than a week.
At lunchtime, dozens of Brisbane homes were without power in Ascot and Hamilton and Upper Brookfield.
While it was 12 degrees for the city’s residents at 7am, the apparent temperature – or “feels like” temperature – was a chilly 8 degrees.
New South Wales has borne the brunt of the bad weather, caused by what the bureau described as a bomb cyclone.Credit: Steven Siewert
Some flights were cancelled on Thursday, including mid-morning flights north to Brisbane Airport from Virgin and Qantas, Jetstar and Qantas flights south to Sydney, and between Sydney and the Gold Coast Airport.
Further west, damaging winds averaging 60 to 70km/h, with peak gusts about 100km/h, were predicted for the Main Range area, near Toowoomba and Warwick.
A wind gust of 61km/h was recorded at Redcliffe at 12.36am on Thursday, with a 50km/h wind gust at the Brisbane Airport at 1.19am.
More than 20,000 homes were without power on Wednesday afternoon because of strong winds.
Evening rail services on the Cleveland line were disrupted when a tree fell on the track, with 15 replacement buses called into service.
A series of low-pressure systems remain in the Tasman Sea, with strong to damaging west-to-southwesterly winds lashing NSW, including parts of the Northern Tablelands, the Mid North Coast hinterland and the Border Ranges, before easing later on Thursday morning.
A secondary low that was moving north just offshore from the NSW coast has begun to weaken.
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