GOLF-SIZED hail has hit parts of central Queensland, as wet weather continues across much of state, some parts seeing falls of up to 50mm.

Residents in Beecher, near Gladstone, were left ducking for cover when golf-ball sized hail bucketed down on Sunday afternoon.

Ian Treveton said the hail had damaged two of his cars, including his daughter’s vehicle.

“My daughter is devastated,” he said.

RAIN CONTINUES
Much of the southeast corner of the state has seen widespread falls of 5-15mm in the past 24 hours.

“We’ve seen underneath some of the storms and heavier showers … totals get up around that 30-40 mm mark, but more widespread, if I was to average out the rainfall around the areas I would say 5-15mm,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Michael Paech said.

Over 24 hours to 9am, Brisbane City has had almost 22mm, while the Airport has had about 21mm.

Some areas on the Sunshine Coast have experienced heavy falls, with Tewantin getting 21.6mm since 9am on Sunday, while the Sunshine Coast Airport recorded 13.4mm in the same period.

Overnight, the highest falls recorded were at Meandarra in the Western Downs, with 51.2mm. Foxley Alert in the Gold Coast Hinterland had 47mm, while Mungindi on the Queensland, NSW border had 46mm.

“The mid-level cloud that’s associated with this rain is likely to move off the coast of Brisbane probably through the mid to late afternoon,” Mr Paech said.

“That does just allow a little bit of time through the late afternoon for another shower to push through in behind the clearance of the cloud — we could even see a storm with that too.”

The rain, however, will be short-lived, with conditions to clear in time for start of the working week.

EARLIER drought-stricken towns such as Surry, near Goondiwindi, have already experienced falls of about 50mm overnight Friday and yesterday morning.

Some dry regions woke up to the rare sight of damp conditions and isolated showers during the day.

The heaviest falls were on the Darling Downs between St George and Goondiwindi, which recorded rainfall of 50mm in the 24 hours to 9am Saturday and drizzling rain during the day.

By 8pm Saturday St George had recorded 30mm of rain since 9am, with nearly 7mm between 7pm and 8pm and more on the way.

Charleville also had up to 15mm over the same 24-hour period and then 23mm during Saturday, while Stanthorpe and Kingaroy recorded about 20mm.

But a bureau spokesman said the rainy conditions will have disappeared by early this week.

“We do have another trough system expected to move across the south of the state next Friday but there’s a fair amount of uncertainty about how much rainfall is associated with that,” he said. “At this stage it is not looking as rain bearing as what we have now.”

That is bad news for the almost 60 per cent of the state within 27 council areas that are either partially or fully drought declared.

The outlook for parts of central Queensland is also not promising, with the Bureau warning it is more likely to be a drier than average spring, along with large areas of land interstate.