DAMAGE DONE: Anne Thomson lost her Kelvin Grove market stall but was still smiling. Picture: Annette Dew Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE: Amie Neil's car is even more compact after the wild storm passed through Spring Hill. Picture: Annette Dew Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
THE weather bureau has come under fire for failing to issue a specific warning about yesterday's freak Brisbane storm until after the damage had been done.
The bureau had warned that storms were likely to hit during the day, and at 8.20am a forecaster told couriermail.com.au they were expecting "the main round of thunderstorms will develop from about the middle part of the day".
But as the freak storm began to form minutes later, the bureau fell silent.
From 8am, amateur weather watchers were warning on web-based forums about the intense cell systems that were forming at Inglewood and moving towards the coast.
By 10am it was clear to anybody watching the weather radar on the bureau's own website that a big storm was headed towards the city - and Energex's lightning tracker recorded more than 1000 strikes during the next 30 minutes.
People started leaving comments on the bureau's Facebook page to ask for a storm update. But still the bureau remained silent.
The front of the storm smashed into the suburbs about 10.30am, with its massive winds described by those in its path as a freak storm much stronger than the usual summer blows.
Another 2000 lightning strikes later, the bureau issued its first specific warning about the storm.
By then the front of the storm had passed over the inner-western suburbs and the central business district and was almost at the coast.
In a statement, the bureau's Queensland regional director Rob Webb defended the timing of the warning.
"The short duration - from minutes, and often less than an hour - and very localised nature of thunderstorms makes them difficult to predict in detail with a long lead time," he said.
"Early Thursday morning the bureau's forecasts for southeast Queensland picked up on the underlying meteorological conditions to indicate severe storms could develop over the weekend, and this was reported in regular radio crosses and news bulletins on Friday.
"As the storm approached the Brisbane CBD, it started to show signs of severe storm characteristics and forecasters issued warnings.
"The Bureau of Meteorology doesn't aim to issue warnings for every thunderstorm, but uses thresholds to ensure there isn't complacency in the community due to over-warning."
But the bureau's Facebook page was inundated through the day with critics.
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