Overview
- More than 5,000 customers in Brisbane remained without power early Tuesday, down from a peak affecting about 120,000, and two schools stayed closed as crews repaired downed lines and replaced broken poles.
- Golf‑ball to near‑tennis‑ball hail and wind gusts up to 109 km/h were confirmed in south‑east Queensland, while Victoria logged hundreds of SES callouts for building damage and fallen trees and recorded thousands of outages in Melbourne’s west.
- After a day of extreme heat near 38C, Brisbane cooled to around 22C with rain forecast up to 45mm, easing local fire danger; earlier fire bans covered parts of the state due to hot, gusty westerlies.
- The same Tasman system is driving severe weather across New Zealand, with heavy rain, gales and alpine snow closing roads, trapping vehicles on key passes and leaving thousands without power as warnings remain in force.
- Suncorp reported more than 2,100 insurance claims in Queensland and about 190 in Victoria, and meteorologists and users criticised BOM’s redesigned radar colour scale and controls, saying it reduced visibility of the most intense cells.