Persistent heavy rainfall has led to flash flooding around parts of south-east Queensland this morning, with more rain and thunderstorms forecast through the remainder of Thursday.
We'll also see more wet weather as we round out the week and push through the weekend. I'm Angus, I'm here at the bureau. This is a severe weather update.
It is Thursday morning at the time of recording, and I wanted to jump in with the radar imagery from the past 12 hours because overnight last night, rain really started to pick up, thicken up and get heavier across the south-east of Queensland.
Play through this loop a couple of times and really want to focus on these areas of yellow and red on the map here.
And there's one in particular through the morning, which is just going to continue to pile in to the north of Brisbane. We'll zoom in a touch to get a slightly better look at where exactly that is. It's this region here. It doesn't look particularly widespread or nasty on the radar imagery, but there has been a small region of very, very heavy rain through the Caboolture area this morning.
The rainfall numbers have really picked up over the past six hours. We've seen 240 mm around the Caboolture region and nearby some other weather stations exceeding 200 mm as well. That is a ton of rain to fall in a six-hour period anywhere in the country. That amount of wet weather will have significant impacts, particularly when it comes to flash flooding. The water just accumulates rapidly under that ongoing heavy rain associated with this line of intense rainfall, so significant flash flooding already recorded.
There have been reports of some flood rescues, plenty of road closures, and because of that, it is advised that you minimise travel where possible if you live in and around this area where most of the rainfall has fallen today.
As I'm filming this, there is still a Severe Thunderstorm Warning in place around parts of south-east Queensland. The yellow region on the map shows the broader thunderstorm warning from Maroochydore down to Ipswich, including the western suburbs of Brisbane.
The orange area shows where that most intense rainfall is associated with that severe thunderstorm around Caboolture, starting to drift southwards now through the likes of Burpengary and out towards those western suburbs of Brisbane as well.
So right across the south-east, but particularly between Brisbane and Caboolture, keep an eye out for the next few hours, with more heavy rain in the forecast for the remainder of Thursday morning and into Thursday afternoon.
Just a note, this Severe Thunderstorm Warning has been updated several times this morning and by the time you watch this video, it probably will have been updated again.
So it's not a case of check the warning, then set it and forget it. You have to stay up to date because these warnings are changing and evolving as we monitor and assess the situation, and they will be updated regularly through the remainder of the day today as well.
This is our thunderstorm map for the rest of today's thunderstorm forecast map for Australia. The yellow area is where we could see more severe storms. So not where we're seeing the severe storms right now necessarily, but where they could pop up through the rest of Thursday. Notice how it extends into northern New South Wales, about as far south as Tamworth.
Not quite as far south as Port Macquarie, but including the likes of Byron Bay, Lismore and Tweed Heads, through the Northern Rivers area up to Moree and the North West Slopes and Plains, and then across all of the Darling Downs and even parts of central Queensland, where severe thunderstorms could continue to bring some heavy rainfall, maybe some strong winds, possibly even some large hailstones in areas.
That's what's happening today. We'll just jump to the forecast for the rainfall now.
You're not going to get a lot of detail from the map at this scale, but you can get the overall picture by looking at the darker blue regions here, which continues through until about 6 to 8 pm this evening. Last few hours of the day today they start to fade away. That means our rain could be heavy and ongoing until the evening, but starting to taper off a little bit as we head into tonight. Certainly around New South Wales and southern parts of Queensland, maybe a few parts through the centre here could continue with those heavy falls right through until the night-time.
Zooming back out again for tomorrow. For Friday I want to see the bigger picture across the country. Now notice there will be continued rainfall across our eastern seaboard for northern New South Wales and eastern Queensland. It does not look like the rain tomorrow will be as heavy as today. It will be wet tomorrow. Widespread rain and storms through much of the east, but not as much rain as what we've already seen falling this morning. That is a key point.
Also, notice the first few hints of a little bit of rain building around parts of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania by the end of the day Friday. That's really going to build on Saturday. A much more widespread band of rain building around this region of southern Australia on Saturday, at the same time that the extensive band of rain is intensifying.
More rain and storms, particularly for Queensland, not just for the south-east, but pushing right to the interior and the west of the state, as well as up the coast about as far north as Mackay.
I'll show you here Sunday as well. We actually almost see the merging of these two areas of rain, as this weather system in the south sweeps up and across New South Wales, starts to butt heads with this ongoing rain and stormy pattern across Queensland. And the result is that our eastern states, from North Queensland down to Tasmania, will have a soggy day on Sunday, including the capitals, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, maybe Adelaide, all picking up some rain this weekend. It is going to be a fairly soggy one across large parts of central and eastern Australia. Lots of rainfall in the forecast for the next four days.
This is that total rainfall accumulation map we show so often, and really highlighting the areas to watch out for. No surprise that includes this region here. There's going to be a lot of rain in that area, but also parts of the south-east, particularly around Melbourne and Hobart, could be picking up some quite sizable rainfall in the coming few days.
Lots to stay on top of, millions of Australians affected by this weather event, so do keep up to date with your forecast and in particular those warnings.
They're updated rapidly. They're available on the bureau's website and app. Thanks so much for watching.
We'll also see more wet weather as we round out the week and push through the weekend. I'm Angus, I'm here at the bureau. This is a severe weather update.
It is Thursday morning at the time of recording, and I wanted to jump in with the radar imagery from the past 12 hours because overnight last night, rain really started to pick up, thicken up and get heavier across the south-east of Queensland.
Play through this loop a couple of times and really want to focus on these areas of yellow and red on the map here.
And there's one in particular through the morning, which is just going to continue to pile in to the north of Brisbane. We'll zoom in a touch to get a slightly better look at where exactly that is. It's this region here. It doesn't look particularly widespread or nasty on the radar imagery, but there has been a small region of very, very heavy rain through the Caboolture area this morning.
The rainfall numbers have really picked up over the past six hours. We've seen 240 mm around the Caboolture region and nearby some other weather stations exceeding 200 mm as well. That is a ton of rain to fall in a six-hour period anywhere in the country. That amount of wet weather will have significant impacts, particularly when it comes to flash flooding. The water just accumulates rapidly under that ongoing heavy rain associated with this line of intense rainfall, so significant flash flooding already recorded.
There have been reports of some flood rescues, plenty of road closures, and because of that, it is advised that you minimise travel where possible if you live in and around this area where most of the rainfall has fallen today.
As I'm filming this, there is still a Severe Thunderstorm Warning in place around parts of south-east Queensland. The yellow region on the map shows the broader thunderstorm warning from Maroochydore down to Ipswich, including the western suburbs of Brisbane.
The orange area shows where that most intense rainfall is associated with that severe thunderstorm around Caboolture, starting to drift southwards now through the likes of Burpengary and out towards those western suburbs of Brisbane as well.
So right across the south-east, but particularly between Brisbane and Caboolture, keep an eye out for the next few hours, with more heavy rain in the forecast for the remainder of Thursday morning and into Thursday afternoon.
Just a note, this Severe Thunderstorm Warning has been updated several times this morning and by the time you watch this video, it probably will have been updated again.
So it's not a case of check the warning, then set it and forget it. You have to stay up to date because these warnings are changing and evolving as we monitor and assess the situation, and they will be updated regularly through the remainder of the day today as well.
This is our thunderstorm map for the rest of today's thunderstorm forecast map for Australia. The yellow area is where we could see more severe storms. So not where we're seeing the severe storms right now necessarily, but where they could pop up through the rest of Thursday. Notice how it extends into northern New South Wales, about as far south as Tamworth.
Not quite as far south as Port Macquarie, but including the likes of Byron Bay, Lismore and Tweed Heads, through the Northern Rivers area up to Moree and the North West Slopes and Plains, and then across all of the Darling Downs and even parts of central Queensland, where severe thunderstorms could continue to bring some heavy rainfall, maybe some strong winds, possibly even some large hailstones in areas.
That's what's happening today. We'll just jump to the forecast for the rainfall now.
You're not going to get a lot of detail from the map at this scale, but you can get the overall picture by looking at the darker blue regions here, which continues through until about 6 to 8 pm this evening. Last few hours of the day today they start to fade away. That means our rain could be heavy and ongoing until the evening, but starting to taper off a little bit as we head into tonight. Certainly around New South Wales and southern parts of Queensland, maybe a few parts through the centre here could continue with those heavy falls right through until the night-time.
Zooming back out again for tomorrow. For Friday I want to see the bigger picture across the country. Now notice there will be continued rainfall across our eastern seaboard for northern New South Wales and eastern Queensland. It does not look like the rain tomorrow will be as heavy as today. It will be wet tomorrow. Widespread rain and storms through much of the east, but not as much rain as what we've already seen falling this morning. That is a key point.
Also, notice the first few hints of a little bit of rain building around parts of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania by the end of the day Friday. That's really going to build on Saturday. A much more widespread band of rain building around this region of southern Australia on Saturday, at the same time that the extensive band of rain is intensifying.
More rain and storms, particularly for Queensland, not just for the south-east, but pushing right to the interior and the west of the state, as well as up the coast about as far north as Mackay.
I'll show you here Sunday as well. We actually almost see the merging of these two areas of rain, as this weather system in the south sweeps up and across New South Wales, starts to butt heads with this ongoing rain and stormy pattern across Queensland. And the result is that our eastern states, from North Queensland down to Tasmania, will have a soggy day on Sunday, including the capitals, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart, maybe Adelaide, all picking up some rain this weekend. It is going to be a fairly soggy one across large parts of central and eastern Australia. Lots of rainfall in the forecast for the next four days.
This is that total rainfall accumulation map we show so often, and really highlighting the areas to watch out for. No surprise that includes this region here. There's going to be a lot of rain in that area, but also parts of the south-east, particularly around Melbourne and Hobart, could be picking up some quite sizable rainfall in the coming few days.
Lots to stay on top of, millions of Australians affected by this weather event, so do keep up to date with your forecast and in particular those warnings.
They're updated rapidly. They're available on the bureau's website and app. Thanks so much for watching.
Severe weather update: Heavy rain and flooding in Qld, more to come
22 October 2026
Video current: 11:00 am AEST Thursday 22/10/26.