23,000 homes were without power this morning after a severe storm hit the south-east overnight, with around 4,500 still waiting to be reconnected this afternoon.

More than 250,000 lightning strikes were recorded and 30 power lines went down during the storm.

Energex spokesperson Brett Judge said most outages are on the Sunshine Coast this afternoon.

“We’ve still got 4500 off right across the south-east it wasn’t helped by another bank of storms that came through around 2.30pm that knocked a few out,” he told Neil Breen.

They are hopeful they can restore power to all homes and businesses by around 8pm.

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By 6.15am, power had been restored to around 5000 homes.

It comes ahead of what forecasters are predicting will be the hottest December day in three years.

Brisbane and Logan are expected to reach 37°C, while the mercury is set to soar to 39°C in Ipswich.

Image: Getty