The Bureau of Meteorology has reverted back to its previous radar format as millions of Australians brace for a weekend of potentially violent thunderstorms.

The Bureau announced late Friday that it had changed the default rain view in the new rain radar and weather map so that colours appear as they did on the previous website.

It followed mass complaints about the $4.1 million site redesign, which had left people feeling unprepared, confused and annoyed during recent storms.

Other ongoing changes and improvements will happen via a planned schedule of regular releases, the BOM stated.

Acting CEO Peter Stone said it was part of the bureau’s commitment to responding to the community.

“We’ve listened to your feedback, and have restored the previous radar colour scheme,” he said.

“We will continue to assess options for further updates and improvements at the same time as pushing on with our efforts to help the community become more familiar with the new website.

“So, more changes are in the pipeline.”

The map will display rain reflectivity (dBZ) as the standard setting, returning to a visual style many users said they found intuitive and reliable for interpreting weather conditions.

The rain reflectivity setting shows extreme rainfall and potential hail as very dark red or black.

Users will be able to choose whether they see their rain display as rain reflectivity (dBZ) or alternatively in millimetres per hour (mm/h), the latter being consistent with how rain is displayed on the BOM Weather app.

It comes as Queensland and NSW brace for a wild weekend after a line of storms smashed Queensland’s southeast on Friday afternoon, and a woman was killed by a lightning strike.

Weatherzone has predicted thunderstorms becoming more intense on Saturday, with storms developing early in the morning over eastern parts of NSW and Qld.

The storms could become more widespread and intense during the afternoon into the evening.

“Saturday’s storms will be most active between central eastern Qld and central NSW, which could include both Brisbane and Sydney.

“Supercell thunderstorms are possible on Saturday, and isolated tornadoes can’t be ruled out.

“Sunday’s thunderstorm activity will be less widespread as a brief reduction in atmospheric instability causes storms to mostly become confined to southeast Qld and far northeast NSW.”

For Monday and Tuesday, Weatherzone said there could be rain, thunderstorms and blustery winds across parts of Qld, NSW, the ACT, Vic, Tas, SA and the NT.

“Some areas of eastern Australia have a chance of seeing thunderstorms every day for the next six days, with severe storms possible each day.”

The BOM’s $4.1 million site redesign sparked complaints after its October 22 launch, with users saying it was hard to use and failed to show storm severity following wild weather that hit Queensland and Victoria at the weekend.

The new website featured design and functionality improvements to the most used pages, including forecasts, observations and weather warnings.

A bureau spokesperson defended the website’s rollout on Wednesday, but acknowledged there had been challenges with the change.

The spokesperson told AAP forecasts and warnings were not affected during the October 22 rollout and remained available throughout the day, as savage storms left a trail of destruction across the eastern seaboard.

“(We) assure the community that the new site has been designed with public safety at its core ,” they said.

The radar functionality is one of the tools that prompted feedback from users, the spokesperson said.

“This is just the beginning of our journey to improve our online services,” they said.

“We will continue to deliver website improvements based on feedback which we are taking seriously, just as we have done throughout the development phase.”

Users have reported several issues, including the removal of the option to enter GPS coordinates for specific properties, limiting searches to towns or postcodes.

“As a result, families, businesses and farmers are unable to access vital, localised data such as river heights and rainfall information,” Mr Littleproud said.

Queensland farmer Paul White said the new website was “hopeless”.

“My main problem is that I have 6500 acres that go under flood waters and we have a gauging station that is 10 kilometres upstream from us,” White said.

“When we have heavy rain I monitor that 24/7 because I have livestock and machinery. But now, I don’t see any meter heights anymore.”

Federal environment minister Murray Watt met with the bureau, saying the site was not meeting many users’ expectations.

He confirmed the bureau was considering the feedback and what adjustments could be made.

“The BOM website is a critical tool to ensure public safety, particularly during the High Risk Weather Season and it must deliver the quality information our hardworking BOM staff are known for,” Watt said in a statement on Tuesday.

-with AAP