Updated October 22, 2026 — 2:03pm,first published October 22, 2026 — 6:58am

At least two people needed help to escape floodwaters as a severe thunderstorm battered the northern Greater Brisbane region on Thursday.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a warning for flash flooding between the Sunshine Coast and the state border, including Brisbane, Caboolture, and Ipswich, and a second front threatened residents south of the city.

“This [storm] will be the first big one and certainly the one that’s bringing the most intense rainfall,” senior meteorologist Angus Hines said.

Police reported almost 40 SES call-outs over 24 hours from 6.30am on Wednesday for sandbagging and setting up tarps across Moreton Bay, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Logan.

From 6.30am to 2pm on Thursday, a further 277 call-outs were made. The majority were in Moreton Bay, and almost a quarter from the Sunshine Coast region.

Swift-water rescue crews also responded to multiple stranded vehicles, including one at an intersection in central Caboolture.

On Caboolture River Road in Rocksberg, west of Caboolture, three swift-water crews rescued a man who became stranded on the roof of a vehicle about 1.15pm.

A person in a flotation device was sent out to retrieve the man. He suffered minor injuries, and was taken in a stable condition to Caboolture Hospital.

Earlier in the day, an ABC reporter and another bystander rescued a man from a sinking four-wheel-drive that stalled on flooded Buchanan Road at Morayfield.

The south-moving storm dumped up to 170 millimetres of rain on Caboolture and Morayfield over three hours from 4.30am.

Between 4.45am and 7.45am, Burpengary recorded 141 millimetres. Further north, parts of Elimbah recorded up to 163 millimetres over three hours by about 8am.

While the weather bureau initially predicted the storm would move over Brisbane between 7am and 8am, the system slowed across the morning.

Several hours later, a second storm developed over the Gold Coast hinterland, which the weather bureau also tracked as moving south.

Meteorologist Tristan Sumarna said the weather system hanging over the region was unstable and active.

He said the storm at Caboolture could remain contained to the region, with residents of Brisbane’s north-western suburbs directly in the firing line, and new storms could develop across the rest of the day.

Residents were advised to move vehicles away from trees or park them undercover, secure pets and close windows. The weather bureau also strongly discouraged driving as the storm passed overhead.

Hines said the storms were inside a larger rain system that had been sitting over much of the state since Monday.

“Even without the stormy weather, we’ve got this broad rain band, so pretty much everyone across the south-east will get a decent drop of rain today,” he said.

“Then wherever those thunderstorms pop up, embedded in this overall rain band, those rainfall numbers will climb much more sharply [and] much more rapidly.”

Hines said areas outside the storm’s path could still receive up to 30 millimetres of rain on Thursday.

Energex recorded four outages across the south-east at 9.15am, affecting more than 1700 homes.

By 11am four more outages occurred, although many homes cut off by earlier outages had been reconnected.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads warned water across the road had closed lanes along Gympie Arterial Road, in Brisbane’s north.

At least 20 roads throughout the city were closed – including Vulture Street in South Brisbane – across the morning.

Morayfield State High School and nearby Minimbah State School were closed for the day.

While the system was not expected to bring intense winds, Hines said gusting could cause isolated instances of swirling wind that could “kick through in any direction”.

The senior meteorologist predicted wet conditions would last until Monday afternoon.

“Temperatures will climb a little bit [over the weekend] because the thick cloud cover and the rain band will break apart a bit,” he said.

“Even though we’ve still got showers in the forecast, we’re much more likely to get some good spells of sunshine.”

But Hines said temperatures would remain between 3 and 6 degrees below the October average – 28 degrees – until the larger rain band lifted.

Premier David Crisafulli told reporters on the Sunshine Coast that there had been some large rainfall totals overnight, with “the prospect of more rain in the next few days”.

“All the work’s been done, and I know, overwhelmingly, people take this in their stride in Queensland,” he said, noting it was “typical storm-season rain”.

“This is an early storm season. We have … pre-positioned a number of assets, we’ve done a lot of preparation for both the fires and now heading into [the] early storm season.

“And I just ask people to make sure they do the right thing themselves and help a neighbour whenever is required.“

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