After a very wet start to summer, Queensland's southeast can finally begin to dry out a little. Saturday nights' storms brought howling wind, hail and areas of heavy rain. Over 80,000 lightning strikes were recorded within 100km radius of Ipswich yesterday, leaving nearly 16,000 homes without power, most of them around the Sunshine Coast. The heaviest of the rain was around Marchoochydore, with one rain gauge recording 122mm. Euldo Flats Road picked up 91mm, Marchoochydore Depot recorded 67mm amd Coolum saw 60mm. Sunshine Coast Airport saw 92mm, its heaviest December rain in a decade. This brought the December total to over 200mm, which is well above the long-term average of 149mm. The trough responsible for the storms will begin to retreat inland over central QLD today, allowing the southeast to dry out of for most of this week. Other than a few showers brought by southeasterly winds, most of this week will be mild, settled and sunny. Warmer conditions will begin to filter into the southeast from Friday.