Residents across a vast region of Queensland are being urged to prepare for a potentially tumultuous weekend as severe weather looms on the horizon.

A powerful line of thunderstorms swept through southeast Queensland on Thursday evening, marking just the start of what the Bureau of Meteorology predicts to be a series of intense weather events.

The storms made their initial impact in the Darling Downs, located west of Brisbane, on Friday afternoon, gradually progressing towards the Gold Coast.

“The Gold Coast has experienced significant storm activity,” reported Luke Bradnam, a weather expert from 9News Queensland, during a broadcast at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. AEDT).

“Currently, the city and its northern suburbs are bearing the brunt of the most severe aspects of this storm,” he noted.

The storms were tracking north-east towards the Sunshine Coast.

Some of the biggest rainfall was at Mitchelton, in Brisbane’s north, where 48 millimetres fell in just 30 minutes to 6.20pm, and at Wallumbilla, more than 400 kilometres west of Brisbane, where 41 millimetres fell at almost the same time.

The BoM said Clontarf, in Moreton Bay, copped hail up to 4 centimetres just after 6pm.

Wind gusts of 91km/h were recorded at Nambour on the Sunshine Coast at 8.31pm.

The storms were tracking towards the ocean but still threatened big downpours and damaging conditions, the BoM said.

“Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding and damaging winds in the warning area over the next several hours,” it said.

And the outlook for the weekend does not get much better.

The bureau has warned of scattered showers and thunderstorms across the state, with the potential for severe thunderstorms with heavy rainfall, damaging wind gusts, and large hail in south-east Queensland.