At least two landspout tornadoes have hit separate parts of the Sunshine Coast, sending debris flying into the air and reportedly tearing the roof off a house.
A tornado whipped through West Woombye about midday and another struck at Glass House Mountains mid–afternoon, ripping out trees and bringing down powerlines.
One house at Glasshouse Mountains reportedly lost its roof and a trampoline landed in someone’s backyard, according to social media.
Videos posted online show metal and other building materials swirling high in the air and plummeting quickly to ground.
West Woombye resident Kylie Fiddy was in her lounge room when the tornado hit, prompting her to move away from glass doors, which she thought were going to give way with the force of the wind.
“The wind came from the east. I was sitting here and we had a heavy shower of rain. All of a sudden, the rain slowed and it (the wind) howled,” Ms Fiddy said.
“It lasted for a couple of minutes and then it stopped. It was like someone turned the on-off switch. It was insane,” she said.
The wind stripped an African tulip tree on the property. Ms Fiddy said there was no other damage on her property and she was thankful her two dogs, tied up on the opposite side of the house, were not hurt.
Carol Draydon was at Glasshouse Mountains when the tornado came through about 1pm.
“There was a strange noise. I don’t know what it was, it sounded like thunder. And then the power went out and then the wind was roaring,” she said.
Ms Draydon said the wind snapped off two timber posts about 100mm thick that a shade sail was secured to, and brought down trees around town, including one on her car which fortunately was not damaged because a roof rail took the force of it.
Jeff Higgins, of Higgins Storm Chasing, warned that further landspout tornadoes and waterspouts could occur on Friday night and Saturday.
Mr Higgins said landspout tornados occurred when there were turning winds above the earth’s surface, and a shower developed, prompting the winds to pull down to the ground.
He said it was very difficult to predict exactly where they would form.
“Because they are so random, and they can happen in a wide area, it’s really, really hard to forecast them,” he said.
“For the next 24 hours, there’s a risk in the area from Bundaberg through to Coolangatta,” he said.
Mr Higgins said there was also a possibility waterspouts could form in the same area and cross on to land to become landspout tornadoes.
He said landspout tornadoes were much weaker than the sort of tornadoes that formed from storm super cells in countries like the United States.
“You’ll get winds up to 100km/h. Most of them are not strong enough to do a lot of damage. Trees and garden sheds and chook pens, they’ll get thrown around, and powerlines down. that sort of thing,” he said.
Mr Higgins recalled a landspout tornado at Mooloolaba about 10 years ago and two more at Hervey Bay and the Bundaberg coast following Cyclone Oswald in 2013.
In 2010, a number of waterspouts crossed on to land at Lennox Head in New South Wales, tearing roofs off homes and units.
Rain continued to soak many parts of the Sunshine Coast on Friday.
There were about 80 road closures late in the day, about 830 homes without power at Beerwah, an initial flood warning for the Noosa River and a minor flood warning for the Mary River.
There was also a vast flood watch from the Gulf Country to South-East Queensland.
More rain was expected on Saturday.
