Overnight, storms in the Gold Coast resulted in a dramatic lightning strike on a Gold Coast home.

News coverage from the Courier Mail is included below.

As part of the Home insurance and contents insurance cover offered by Real Insurance, you are covered for lightning, as well as damage from storm. Make sure you read our Product Disclosure Statements carefully to check your cover as well as exclusions.

Couriermail.com.au
Robyn Ironside and Jane Chudleigh
November 6 2009

A SUBURBAN house has been badly damaged and the occupants slightly injured after being struck by lightning during overnight storms.

About 11.20pm, the bolt struck the television antenna of the house in Winani Drive at Ashmore on the Gold Coast and blew in the ceiling of the kitchen and loungeroom.

The charge then blew out the power box attached to an outer brick wall, demolishing the structure. 

Fire crews had to put out a small fire at the scene.

Police said the family was home at the time and suffered cuts from broken glass.

Officers described the scene as ``quite extraordinary''.

Despite the spectacular light display, the storms failed to deliver much in the way of rain to coastal areas.

Brisbane City picked up just 0.4mm and the Gold Coast Seaway 1.2mm.

Further west the falls increased substantially with Amberley scoring 67.2mm, Beaudesert 44mm and Gatton 31mm.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Rick Threlfall said the storms collapsed once they reached Brisbane's outskirts.

``They were quite substantial out over the hills to the west of Brisbane, with some good rainfall and wind gusts of 75km/h,'' Mr Threlfall said.

``But they really died away as soon as they hit the Brisbane City boundary and we didn't see much rain at all in the city centre.''

A new line of storms had formed off the coast this morning but were not expected to make landfall, Mr Threlfall said.

``Conditions will remain pretty unstable for the next few days with showers around today and over the weekend. They will be pretty isolated, becoming more frequent on Sunday,'' he said.

Temperatures are also expected to be cooler with tops in the mid-20s. 

More thunderstorms are expected to develop in the southeast and Darling Downs today, with showers along the southern coast.

Showers and thunderstorms will continue over the weekend, tending to rain on the central Queensland coast.

 An Energex spokeswoman said about 24,000 homes, particularly in the Lockyer Valley and Ipswich regions, were without power as the storms battered electricity networks.

The weather bureau said at the height of the storm some of the heaviest rain in a decade poured on the Ipswich region at a rate of 50mm to 60mm per hour.

About 50mm of rain was recorded in just half an hour near Laidley and the nearby Bill Gunn Dam had at least 78mm from the storm.

Strong wind gusts of 78 km/h buffeted Archerfield and Amberley recorded winds of 76 km/h.

After recent high temperatures the storm cells developed in the southwest in the early afternoon yesterday.

Hailstones as large as seven centimetres was reported northeast of Warwick, with golf-ball sized hail at Allora and marble size hail pelting Stanthorpe.

The Toowoomba and Warwick SES responded to 18 calls for help, mainly to leaking roofs caused by the hail.

The heavy storm cell weakened before bringing thunder and rain to Brisbane last night and heading towards the Gold Coast..

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