Australia facing thunderstorms and heatwave

Severe thunderstorms battered parts of eastern Australia on Saturday, bringing heavy rain, giant hail and strong winds, days after another storm hit the region over the Christmas holidays.

A wild weather system is forecast to stretch more than 1,000 kms (620 miles) from Port Macquarie in the state of New South Wales to Rockhampton in Queensland, with southeastern Queensland expected to bear the brunt of the storm.

Some regions picked up about 110 mm (4.3 inches) of rain, roughly a month's total, in two hours on Saturday morning, while hailstones as big as 6 cm (2.4 inches) were also spotted. The bad weather is expected to continue into the new year.

Two people were taken to hospital after lightning strikes, one while inside a car and the other on an excavator.

The storms follow severe weather on Dec. 25 and 26 that killed 10 people and knocked out power for tens of thousands of properties across the east, and after Cyclone Jasper earlier this month caused widespread flooding and damage.

About 28,000 properties are still without power and the latest storms will hamper reconnection efforts, Queensland state Premier Steven Miles told reporters.

As Queensland endures its second major storm in a week, an intense heatwave was sweeping across Australia's north and west. Temperatures in Marble Bar, a remote old mining town in the northwest of the state of Western Australia, are expected to touch 49°C (120°F) on Saturday.

Australia's December-February summer is under the influence of the El Nino phenomenon, which can cause weather extremes ranging from wildfires to cyclones and prolonged droughts.