Multiple people have been taken to hospital after they were injured by hail crashing down, as severe storms lashed Queensland and NSW.

Nine patients were assessed at a school fair in Esk, in southern Queensland, when a hail downpour pummelled the small town.

A woman in her 30s suffered head and neck injuries and was taken to Ipswich Hospital.

A man in his 20s had minor injuries and was taken to Gatton Hospital.

Two women had minor injuries and five people who were treated did not need to be taken to hospital.

Bands of thunderstorms lashed a region stretching from central Queensland down to northern NSW on Saturday.

Hail damage outside MJ’s Cafe and Bar in Pratten, Queensland. Photo: AAP

Brisbane, the Sunshine and Gold Coasts were drenched as the storms moved east, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing alerts well into the night.

There were reports of shattered car windows and damaged homes in some areas as the storms brought hailstones up to 9cm wide and gusts up to 100km/h, while thousands of homes were left without power.

Weatherzone reported 9cm hailstones at 1:03pm at Pratten, Queensland, at about 1pm. In NSW there was 7cm hail at North Dorrigo at 3:20pm.

The bureau warned about one particularly dangerous storm that battered towns with giant hailstones as it made its way northeast from the Southern Downs to the Sunshine Coast.

At MJ’s Cafe & Bar in the Southern Downs town of Pratten, owner Richard Manley said hail almost the size of tennis balls came crashing through their skylights.

“Basically all the cars in the car park had their windscreen smashed and a Land Cruiser lost nearly every panel on the car,” he told AAP.

Among the highest rainfall was 54 millimetres recorded in half an hour at Barongarook on the Southern Downs, while wind gusts of 104km/h were recorded at Dalby Airport in the neighbouring Darling Downs.

The ground blanketed in Clifton, southern Queensland. Photo: Higgins Storm Chasing

In NSW, parts of the Hunter, mid-north coast, and central tablelands on Saturday recorded hailstones as large as 7cm, while Grafton in the Northern Rivers region received 70 millimetres of rain in half an hour.

Though storms are set to continue into Sunday, they are expected to be contained to a smaller area.

“Many places will not see the same risk,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Angus Hines said.

“But that doesn’t mean there’s no risk at all.”

There was a chance severe thunderstorms would continue to plague the Sunshine State, but they were expected to affect areas from Brisbane to Bundaberg, Hines said.