About 8.30am,almost 20,000 properties across the south-east were still without power,with almost 13,000 losing power on the Sunshine Coast.
By Thursday afternoon,more than 5000 properties across the south-east were still affected.
Across the region,there were about 141,000 lightning strikes from 1am to 7am,with about seven strikes a second,the bureau said.
Severe thunderstorm warnings remained on Thursday for the Sunshine Coast,as a surface and upper trough over the south-east and central Queensland generated highly unstable conditions.
At Mt Kilcoy in the Somerset region,hail measuring four centimetres was reported.
Meteorologist Danny Johnson on Wednesday said the Bureau of Meteorology predicted storms in Brisbane as parts of Queensland grappled with a heat surge.
“Thursday is going to be quite a warmer day,particularly overnight,so we’ll have a minimum of around 20 degrees for Brisbane and regions around;it’ll be a bit cooler on the coastal fringes,with a max of 37 degrees,” he said.
The bureau’s forecast of a maximum Brisbane temperature of 37 degrees remained in place at 6am on Thursday,but by 8am had been lowered to 34 degrees.
“We are expecting a medium chance of showers,about 40 per cent,with a chance of a thunderstorm in the late afternoon or evening,but we’re not expecting too much in the way of rainfall,probably about a millimetre,” Johnson had said.
“From Friday we’ll return to cooler conditions,to tops of around 28 degrees.”
He said thunderstorms were expected to return to the Brisbane area by Saturday.
The bureau had issued an extreme heatwave warning for the Gulf Country,Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders,Central Coast and Whitsundays,and North West Districts,with most of the top half of the state to be affected.
A severe heatwave warning was also issued for large parts of Queensland,including the south-east coast district,Wide Bay and Burnett,the Peninsula,North Tropical Coast and Tablelands,Herbert and Lower Burdekin,Central Highlands and Coalfields,and Central West.
While still an early forecast,temperatures were expected to rise again for the south-east by early next week.
– With AAP