While most Queenslanders awoke to sunny skies, a distinct band of storms which sparked up over central QLD this morning has continued to batter eastern parts of the state.

Image 1: Satellite imagery, radar and lighting tracker over eastern QLD at 15:05 AEST 

Since this morning, 226,288 lightning strikes have been detected within a 500km radius of Rockhampton.

Image 1: Lightning strikes (red boxes) detected by Weatherzone’s lightning network since this morning (Saturday 17th) until approx. 18:00 AEST 

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning this afternoon for parts of eastern QLD, with the potential for damaging winds and hail embedded in these storms. That warning remains in effect (which you can read more about here), and will be updated in the coming hours. 

The most significant rainfall observations from these storms included Yeppoon (29mm), Gladstone AP (17mm), Williamson RAAF (22mm) and Rockhampton (12mm).

High pressure building over central Australia will push the trough responsible for these storms further east tomorrow. This will bring very quiet and settled conditions to majority of the state tomorrow, but there is still the potential for a storm or two around the Northern Goldfields in the afternoon.