Australia Weather News

It looks like a UFO, or an alien ship, but these oddly-shaped clouds snapped by locals west of Brisbane on Thursday morning are an indicator of Queensland's wild weather.

Kylie Craig Menkins photographed the storm cell from Gowrie Junction, near Toowoomba on the Darling Downs, about 5am.

She jokingly captioned it with "aliens come down", but told the ABC the spectacular display made her day.

"It was absolutely beautiful," she said.

Ken Manteit also snapped photos of the other-worldly cloud formation from Yalangur Lilyvale Road looking towards Oakey.

"It was so weird," his wife Roxanne said. 

Kevin Humphrey's photos of the storm cell at Glencoe, south-east of Oakey, were posted to social media with the caption "Spaceship at Glencoe".

"I thought it looked a bit UFOish," he said.

Daniel Hayes from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said a "series of storms" over the Darling Downs on Thursday morning was what caused these "photogenic clouds".

"They can sometimes look quite weird in shape, and definitely look a bit like a UFO or a spaceship," he said.

What do they mean?

Mr Hayes said the phenomena — known as arcus or shelf clouds — was a sign to check your weather app for any active warnings.

While the clouds weren't necessarily a cause for concern, "the strength of the gust front is often what brings damaging winds".

"You'll often get that cool breeze come through ahead of a big thunderstorm during these summer periods," Mr Hayes said.

"That's cold air coming down, out of the storm itself, moving ahead of [it]."

He said other types of clouds, like lenticular clouds, could also present in a unique shape — but this particular formation was generally associated with a thunderstorm.

"Through Queensland, you can get nice big storms [and] well-developed shelf clouds on these," Mr Hayes said.

Mr Hayes said while shelf clouds weren't uncommon, they were much more noticeable in isolated storm cells and areas with vast flat landscapes.

He explained arcus clouds formed along "the leading edge" of a storm, or the cell's "gust front".

He said shelf clouds were triggered when the cool air mixed with the warm, moist atmosphere near the ground and pushed upward.

"The bigger the storm, the more potential mixing there is, and the more potential strength to those downdrafts," Mr Hayes said.

He said the formation did not always need humid conditions, but dew point could indicate "what that available moisture is for storms to tap into".

What's the weather outlook?

Mr Hayes said similar weather was expected to continue over the weekend, with an inland trough moving through Queensland.

"We're expecting to see increasing showers and storms through the southern inland and south-east Queensland areas over the next few days," Mr Hayes said.

"There is the potential that we could see some more severe storms in that mix."

Damaging winds, large hail, and heavy rainfall were possible, with showers expected on Sunday but easing into next week. 

"If [rain] falls very quickly, or we have slow-moving storms, we could have a flash flooding risk [and] some riverine responses," Mr Hayes said.

Meanwhile heatwave conditions were building in Queensland's west, with temperatures expected to push into the 40s over the weekend.

As clouds clear from the coast, the heat will move across into central and eastern Queensland.