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

A mini-twister has been filmed ripping through Brisbane amid wild weather, bringing severe thunderstorms and massive hail to parts of Queensland.

The gust, a small twister different from that of a tornado, was spotted on the Brisbane River at Kangaroo Point on Friday afternoon amid dangerous winds and heavy rain.

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

“From what I can tell, this is not a full-fledged tornado, but more likely a ‘gustnado’ which is a more transient feature on the leading edge of the storm. It still looked like there was a strong wind!’ he wrote on X.

Several weather warnings are in force 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 3 inches wide.

“A moist and unstable air mass combined with a south-easterly wind shift moving along the coast is leading to the development of severe thunderstorms in south-east Queensland,” the Bureau of Meteorology said.

“Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds and large hailstones across parts of the Wide Bay, Burnett and Southeast Coast districts over the next few hours.”

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

There’s more to come