‘Mini tornado’ sweeps across Brisbane River as Queensland is battered by wild thunderstorms and huge hail

A mini twister has been filmed sweeping across Brisbane amid wild weather bringing severe thunderstorms and giant hail to parts of Queensland.

The gustnado, which is a small whirlwind different to that of a tornado, was seen on the Brisbane River at Kangaroo Point amid dangerous winds and heavy rain on Friday afternoon.

The weather phenomenon was captured by Channel Seven weather presenter Tony Auden.

‘From what I can tell this isn’t a fully fledged tornado, but more likely a ‘gustnado’ that is a more transient feature on the leading edge of the storm. Still looked like it had some strong winds in it though!’ he wrote on X.

Several weather warnings are in place for eastern parts of the state including a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of Gympie, the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay regions.

Residents are told to expect damaging winds and hailstones up to 7cm wide.

‘A moist and unstable airmass combined with a southeasterly wind change moving up the coast is leading to the development of severe thunderstorms through southeast Queensland,’ the Bureau of Meteorology said.

‘Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds and large hailstones over the next several hours in parts of the Wide Bay and Burnett and Southeast Coast districts.’

The BOM said hailstones as large as 7cm in diameter were spotted in Flagstone, in Logan, just after 3pm on Friday. 

More to come