Had to post this off Energex's facebook page. Shows the strength of the wind here.

Hi Colmait, yes it was certainly a strong system that past through. Glad you got home safe. I heard it was a disaster on the Bruce Highway. Those photos I posted is of just one street in our neighbourhood. I walked through there 30 minutes prior to the storm as it is part of my daily walk route, so am a bit shocked as to what it looks like now. It is impossible to walk through that part now unless you walk on the road. I too also heard the roar of the wind coming and then all the trees just bent sideways. We live at Glenfields Estate in Mountain Creek (suburb next to Mooloolaba, so not far from where you were). I cannot remember being in a storm like that for my whole life. The destruction around here and Buderim Meadows is unreal and looking around by foot and car, it looked like a strong cyclone or bomb had hit. I am certain there is much much, more damage around to what we saw. We had no power for 7 hours so drove out to Sippy Downs to get Maccas for dinner and there were trees down out there and along the Sunshine motorway and windows damaged from hail. We saw a roof torn off a house around the corner from us and my neighbour got a tree branch in his roof and pierced into their dining room. Considering we back onto national park with old large trees backing up to our fence, I am surprised our house came out unscathed. We got some hail about the size of a 50 cent piece but other areas got much larger. I saw photos of cars parked at Aussie World and as they got giant hail the size of tennis balls, the cars are a mess. There were hundreds of cars caught in it on the Bruce Highway that got severe damage and dozens of tow trucks worked tirelessly for hours to clear the highway and tow them away. Our estate has underground power, but there are overhead power lines in the older section of Mountain Creek and dozens and dozens of lines were down on the road. We drove along Karawatha Dve in Mountain Creek and the amount of large trees down on the road and fences and cars was shocking. Did you by any chance get a screenshot of the Doppler wind radar when it hit? Would love to see it if anybody has it as I was too busy recording the storm on the phone and forgot to look at the doppler.

Edited by user Monday, 18 November 2019 7:35:05 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Ferny Grove Weather
Date: 18 Nov 2019
Time: 7:50 AM

Min Temp since 9am yesterday: 19.4 C
Max Temp since 9am yesterday: 33.1 C
Min Ground Temp: 16.5 C
Rain since 9am yesterday: 3 mm
Temperature: 23 C
Relative Humidity: 55 %
Dew Point: 13.6 C
MSL Pressure: 1019.2 hPa
Wind Speed: light breeze
Wind Direction: SE

Present Weather: Smoke haze
Visibility: 20km to 39km - Very Good Visibility
Cloud Cover: 5/8
Ground State: Ground dry
Thunder yesterday: Yes

Notes of yesterday weather - 17/11/19: Smoke haze and increasing in the afternoon. Partly cloudy with cu clouds with cb, ac and ci clouds in the afternoon. A mild and brief thunderstorm in the early afternoon with a brief brief period of rainfall with large drops. Near average dew point early rising during the morning becoming moderately high at times in the afternoon and fell slightly later in the afternoon. After a brief rise in dew point whilst remaining near average the dew point fell with a wind change. A hot day with the maximum temperature reached at midday before increasing clouds and then rose following the thunderstorm. Relative humidity was moderately low early in the day, moderately high during the day and near average in the evening. The relative humidity fell slightly in the evening with the wind change. Light and variable winds early in the day with light E to NE winds from the late morning. Winds became light N to NE winds in the afternoon with some ENE to NE winds, before light and variable winds in the evening. Winds became S to SW from 8:30pm and then a wind change of S to SE from 10pm. Wind speed eased in the early evening and increased from 8pm with gusty light to moderate winds with the wind change easing later in the evening.

Today: Dew point continued for fall until 2am while remaining near average before rising slowly. Moderately low relative humidity overnight and this morning which fell further following the wind change. Light S to SE winds with some S to SW winds.

Thanks Colmait, it would be interesting to see Doppler. Cheers

Just let me know time and radar location and I'll dig up the velocities.

I'm guessing somewhere around here?

Edited by user Monday, 18 November 2019 12:12:42 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks Colmait & Orebound. I can see some strong winds in those images. Traffic is a nightmare up here atm. Still roads closed due to trees down blocking them. The 10 minute school run along the motorway this morning took 40 minutes. Workers out everywhere cleaning up fallen trees, energex still out fixing power lines. The hundred or so trees down in our little estate haven't even been touched yet. Guess they are trying to clear the main roads first to help traffic flow. Seriously hope we do not get another system like that for a while now, although I have been waiting for a few years for it to happen.

A couple of pics I could get. This photo had a funnel that was roping out.

One of the very heavy windows that was sucked out from the second floor. It hit the wharf with a massive bang. There were several loud crashing sounds going on throughout the wharf. Brocken glass in lots of places but I couldn’t get into photo.

Just some random after the main cell passed.

Edited by user Monday, 18 November 2019 2:08:11 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Nice one mate.

Doppler at that range isn't going to be the best representation of near-surface features but it's without a doubt showing quite a strong couplet as it approaches the coast and a fair indication of a strong inflow dominant storm.

Edited by user Monday, 18 November 2019 4:37:08 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks for posting that Orebound. Much appreciated.

We were originally down at Caloundra and you could see it building. My safest bet was to try and get undercover at Mooloolaba otherwise I would have been one of the many hundreds of cars smashed on the Highway.

When we could fully see the storm there was a massive Beavers tail on the rear of it. It was feeding beautifully of the ocean. I just could not pull over anywhere to get a shot or two. People were getting a bit worried and cutting in and out of the traffic so it took all concentration to get to the carpark. Just managed to fluke a park and get into Hoggs Breath. Order just arrived and before the storm hit we lost power so you knew it was bad.

Sharjay’s photo of the Energex pole explains it all. The staff said the power was out and it was going to be along time before it could be restored.