Southeast Queensland hit with month's worth of rain in an hour

Dangerous storms have lashed southeast Queensland, as a month's rain and tennis ball-sized hailstones were dumped from the Darling Downs to the Sunshine Coast.

Beachmere, near Caboolture, recorded 80mm of rain in an hour on Tuesday, while 70mm bucketed down on The Upper Lockyer, west of Brisbane, the Bureau of Meteorology reported.

"That's a month's rain in the space of an hour," meteorologist Felim Hanniffy told AAP.

"In some areas of northern Brisbane 50mm fell in 30 minutes."

Flash flooding inundated some city areas at the height of the storms, causing delays to traffic and one driver to be stranded on the roof of his car.

Flooding was also reported in Gatton, east of Toowoomba, and Beachmere.

"Eighty millimetres of rain in an hour is hard to get rid of," meteorologist Rosa Hoff said.

"Very damp indeed."

Earlier, areas near Noosa and Gympie, north of the Sunshine Coast, were pelted with hail reportedly up to the size of a tennis ball.

While almost 50mm of rain fell in an hour at Kalbar in the Scenic Rim and more than 60mm of rain dumped on Helidon, near Toowoomba.

The series of severe thunderstorms pushed west towards Warwick, Toowoomba, the Lockyer Valley and Kilcoy earlier in the day, with the bureau issuing a "very dangerous" storm warning.

By late afternoon, they stretched from the Sunshine Coast south to Caboolture, Brisbane and Logan as people were urged to seek shelter.

But by evening the line of massive storms had moved east out to sea and the bureau cancelled a severe thunderstorm warning for the southeast coast and parts of the Capricornia, Wide Bay and Burnett and Darling Downs and Granite Belt.

More severe thunderstorms are forecast for Wednesday.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.