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Winter storms to hit eastern Australia on Thursday

Source Weatherzone Thu 14 Aug 2025

Thunderstorms producing rain, hail and lightning are likely to develop over parts of Queensland and NSW on Thursday. Winter is a quiet time for thunderstorm activity in eastern Australia because there is less atmospheric instability for the storms to develop compared to spring and summer. However, there are rare cases where all of the ingredients come together to cause winter thunderstorms over parts of eastern Australia, and this unusual situation is happening this week. A pool of cold upper-level air interacting with ample atmospheric moisture will cause thunderstorms to develop over a broad area of southeast Qld and northeast NSW on Thursday. Image: 500hPa temperature at 10am AEST on Thursday, showing a large pool of cold upper-level air over eastern Australia. This system already triggered a few thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon, which caused large amounts of small hail in parts of both states, including Grafton and the Glass House Mountains region. Image: Hail in Grafton, NSW on Wednesday, August 13, 2025. Source: @em.norton / Instagram Thursday’s thunderstorm activity will be more widespread than Wednesday and there will once again be lots of hail. While wintertime thunderstorms are less likely to become severe than their summertime counterparts, it’s not unusual for winter storms to cause lots of small hail that can accumulate on the ground. Even if Thursday’s thunderstorms don’t become intense enough to reach severe warning thresholds, they can still be dangerous due to their lightning, rain and small hail. Short periods of heavy rain can cause driving conditions to become hazardous and large accumulations of small hail can cause structural damage and affect crops. Be sure to check the radar in your area throughout Thursday if you live in southeast Qld or northeast NSW, and keep an eye on the latest warnings in case any severe storms manage to pop up. - Weatherzone © Weatherzone 2025