Australia Weather News

Residents on the Sunshine Coast are cleaning up this morning after a short but severe storm tore through some suburbs, bringing trees down onto homes and leaving hundreds without power.

A quick burst of heavy rain and strong winds caused dozens of trees to be uprooted in Little Mountain, with gusts of up to 57 kilometres an hour recorded at the Sunshine Coast airport.

The State Emergency Service said they received 58 calls for help overnight, mostly in response to the wild weather in this area.

At the peak of the storm, more than 350 homes and businesses were without power, with dozens still disconnected on Sunday morning as crews worked to restore the system.

The highest rainfall totals were recorded at nearby at Bells Creek, which saw 70 millimetres in the past 24 hours, while Black Mountain, inland from Noosa, received 79 millimetres.

In Caloundra West, a trampoline was lifted and blown across several houses, crashing through fences.

Earlier, in Brisbane, day two of the Gabba Test cricket match was called off early as a storm rolled through the city.

The weather bureau is closely monitoring cyclone Kimi that's developed off the Cooktown coast.

Meteorologist Harry Clark said the system is expected to bring heavy rain around the already saturated region, which is still recovering from Tropical Cyclone Imogen earlier this month.

A flood watch remains in place for parts of the state's north.

Some areas that are still recovering from Tropical Cyclone Imogen earlier this month could receive rainfall of up to 200mm in the coming days.

"The flood watch is out for those areas between Cape Flattery and Ingham," he said.

"It's really largely because those catchments are very saturated from recent rainfall.

"At this stage, we're expecting minor to moderate flooding to be possible, and particularly in those areas where flooding has recently occurred."