There were power outages affecting about 20,000 homes, mostly on the Sunshine Coast.

The northern suburbs of Brisbane were also hit and storms were hanging off the coast of Brisbane this morning with continued lightning.

Storms also hit the Darling Downs region and southern Queensland.

The furious amount of lightning was the cause of the power outages and Energex is hopeful of restoring power quickly.

Severe road damage was also reported in the inner city suburbs, which is expected to cause traffic delays.

The heatwave that has hit the state over the past three days is expected to end today with more storms forecast and a temperature reaching 37 degrees.

“Relief will arrive in south-east Queensland on Thursday afternoon, with gusty thunderstorms and a cool change. Heat will persist elsewhere until at least this weekend,” the Bureau of Meteorology said.

“Tropical activity looks to increase during next week, helping to flush out stagnant heat.”

Temperatures in the north and west of the state were expected to top 40 degrees today.

Higgins Storm Chasing said the south east coast should see storms between 11am and 3pm, the Wide Bay and Burnett should see storms from early to late afternoon and the Capricornia should see storms from mid-afternoon pushing into coastal areas during the early night.

“Areas north of the Sunshine Coast are expected to see oppressive conditions for much longer today, but even after storms clear the south east Queensland coast , temperatures may actually increase under the influence of the very hot and dry winds.”