Australia Weather News

Swiftwater rescue crews were deployed to parts of Brisbane on Tuesday afternoon, with flash flooding from heavy rainfall causing havoc across the city.

The strength of the downpour caused cars to become submerged in parts of Brisbane's east and south.

A storm system described as "very dangerous" by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) was detected on weather radar near Caboolture, then moved south across Brisbane, Logan City and Redcliffe.

BOM warned intense rainfall that could lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding was likely.

At Kedron, in northern Brisbane, a swiftwater rescue crew helped a person who was forced to climb on top of a car claimed by rising waters.

Another crew was sent to Woolloongabba, in Brisbane's inner-south, after five vehicles became submerged at Longlands and Lerna streets.

Woolloongabba residents Mitch O'Brien and Sam Klose went for a walk in Woolloongabba Rotary Park after the rain stopped, but discovered the whole park was under water.

"We've been living around here for two years and we've seen a few flash floods but never anything this bad," Mr O'Brien said.

"There were a few cars floating around in the street nearby too."

Emma Perrie returned from work in the Brisbane CBD to find her car submerged on Albion Street at Woolloongabba.

"I walked back to see my car had been flooded so I'm pretty disappointed," she said.

The BOM said 80 millimetres of rain was recorded at Caboolture.

Power outages affected thousands of homes.

Ergon Energy said at one point about 7,000 properties were blacked out across the Wide Bay and Burnett region, but most had power restored by 7:30pm.

Energex said by 7:30pm, about 750 homes across South-East Queensland were still without power.

Parts of Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast have also been experiencing outages.

Earlier, a series of storm cells moved across the southern inland, impacting Nanango and Kilcoy.

Large hail was recorded north of Toowoomba.

At Upper Lockyer, 70mm of rain was recorded in an hour, with 62mm recorded at Helidon and 48mm at Kalbar, west of Beaudesert.

Earlier on Tuesday, a remarkable cold air funnel was spotted over Warwick, south-west of Brisbane.

ABC