South-east Queensland has escaped relatively unscathed following multiple warnings of giant hail and intense rainfall as a trough in the west reached the coast late on Wednesday.
At 6:04pm, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) warned a "very dangerous" thunderstorm cell was near Burpengary, north of Brisbane, moving east toward Moreton Bay and Caboolture.
By 6:30pm, the storm was no longer deemed dangerous and was moving over Bribie Island and out to sea.
Further south, a separate severe storm cell brought heavy rain to parts of Logan and the Gold Coast late in the afternoon.
By 6:30pm, there had been no reports of hail or property damage.
Just before 7pm, the severe thunderstorm warnings for Queensland were cancelled.
Earlier in the day, BOM forecaster Felim Hanniffy had urged south-east Queensland residents to take necessary safety precautions.
"The level of moisture that's in the air and the unstable conditions across with that system could facilitate some isolated, very dangerous thunderstorms as they move east during the rest of this afternoon," he told ABC Radio Brisbane.
A major flood warning is in place for the Moonie River, with major flooding possible at Thallon Bridge and moderate flooding at Nindigully.
On Wednesday morning, meteorologist Ken Kato said the thunderstorms expected right across Australia's east coast could include giant hail five centimetres in diameter or larger.
"We're talking about some portions of the Darling Downs … maybe south-east Queensland, a lot of eastern NSW and southern NSW," he told ABC Radio Brisbane.
"That broad area will see a very heightened potential for showers and thunderstorms today and in some of those places storms will be severe."
El Niño effect
Wet weather across large parts of the country has been caused by troughing in the surface and upper levels of the atmosphere over central Australia.
Mr Kato said it was "not that usual" for an El Niño weather event to have so much rain but added that the weather pattern was "never defined by how much or little rain fell in a given area".
Instead, El Niño events were indicated by the sea surface temperature across the Pacific Ocean.
"When people think of El Nino they think of a really hot, dry summer," he said.
"But it's more so the late winter and spring months that El Niño has the biggest effect on rainfall."
Heatwave in Cape York
Meanwhile, there is a severe heatwave warning for areas of Cape York, the North Tropical Coast and Tablelands, Herbert and Lower Burdekin, Central Coast and Whitsundays and South-East Coast districts.
The warning is valid until Friday.
Heavy rain lashed large parts of the state overnight, with 78 millimetres recorded in Samuel Hill, north of Gladstone, 74mm in Molendinar and 64mm in Greenbank, south of Brisbane.