A dramatic cool change has arrived in Brisbane, bringing much-needed relief from Monday’s scorching temperatures.
The city has woken to rain and 20-degree temperatures after 48 hours of wild weather.
Brisbane has been a city of extremes since fierce storms rolled in on Sunday afternoon, delivering heavy rain, hail, lightning strikes and wild winds that brought down hundreds of power lines.
Hazy Brisbane on the hottest October day in 20 years.Credit: Rosanna Ryan
That was followed by Monday’s record-breaking heat, before bushfires west of Brisbane shrouded much of the city in smoke.
Monday was the hottest October day in 21 years, peaking at 38.7 degrees in the early afternoon.
By the evening more than 50 fires were burning around the state.
Smoke from blazes in the Lockyer Valley and areas around Ipswich were blowing towards the coast. There is also a fire burning near Duck Lagoon on North Stradbroke Island, with smoke affecting surrounding areas.
The fire on North Stradbroke Island, seen from Russell Island.Credit: Russell Island Community Noticeboard
The Queensland Fire Department issued 31 warnings across the state, though none were more serious than urging people to stay informed.
The oppressive heat came less than 24 hours after the city was lashed by an intense storm.
Further north in Callide, a lightning strike took down part of a major power station.
As of 5.15pm on Monday – when it was still about 32 degrees – 19,042 homes and businesses in the Brisbane City Council area were without power due to storm damage.
“Unit C4 at Callide Power Station tripped and came offline at approximately 6.30pm yesterday evening following a storm and lightning strike to Powerlink Queensland’s Calvale switchyard,” a spokesperson for CS energy said.
The unit is expected to come back online on Friday.
Energex said it had restored power to more than 90 per cent of homes and businesses impacted by Sunday’s storms.
“There have been more than 120,000 customers impacted by the storms and there are still about 5500 customers out,” Energex said, via Facebook.
“Crews are coming in from everywhere to work through the worst of the damage around Indooroopilly, Kenmore and Fig Tree Pocket.
The hazy, orange Brisbane sunset on Monday.Credit: Rosanna Ryan
“It’s wet, so that adds a different complexity to the job, but at least it’s not as hot as yesterday.
“There’s still more than 40 wires down, broken poles to replace and lots of vegetation, so please be extremely careful if you’re cleaning up today.”
On Sunday night, Energex said at least 369 wires had come down, and it received 450 calls for help. More houses lost power on Monday amid high winds, with the company saying it had 216 workers on the ground by the evening.
The smoke haze seen from Mount Gravatt East on Monday evening. Credit: Marissa Calligeros
“I think we’ve got more than 50 crew in there at the moment, that are working through the night,” Energex spokesperson Brett Judge said about 7pm.
“They’re dealing with some pretty heavy vegetation with trees down and branches over stuff – it’s dark and there are wires down everywhere.”
The city is set for a much cooler and possibly wet day on Tuesday with a maximum temperature of 21 degrees forecast – nearly 18 degrees lower than Monday’s maximum – before Brisbane heats up again for the remainder of the week.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
