Eastern Australia doesn't usually brace for a lot of severe thunderstorms in May, but Tuesday will be a dangerous day of weather in multiple states.

An upper-level cut-off low pressure system passing over southeastern Australia will create an ideal environment for widespread severe weather on Tuesday.

Image: Forecast accumulated rain on Tuesday, May 11, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

Moisture-laden air feeding into a surface-based low pressure system will cause heavy rain in southern and eastern Victoria and far southeast NSW on Monday night and Tuesday. Severe weather warnings have been issued in both states, with some places likely to see over 100mm by the end of Tuesday. This rain could cause flooding.

The combination of an unstable atmosphere, abundant instability and favourable wind shear (a change in wind speed and direction with height) will also produce dangerous storms in eastern Australia on Tuesday.

Storms could pop up anywhere from southern NSW up to central Queensland on Tuesday, with some lightning striking from the early morning.

A series of intense thunderstorms hit southeast Queensland on Monday night, prompting warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology. Doppler radar images showed a region of powerful winds passing to the north of Gatton before passing over Ipswich shortly after midnight. There were reports that this storm brought down tree branches and cut power in the area.

Image: Doppler radar showing a concentrated region of powerful wind associated with a thunderstorm to the west of Ipswich, shortly before 1am on Tuesday, May 11.

Some of the most dangerous storms on Tuesday will occur from the afternoon in northeast NSW and southeast Queensland, where large hail, damaging winds and heavy rain are all a risk.

This system will continue to cause showers and potentially severe storms in parts of Queensland and NSW on Wednesday. We will have more updates on our app, website and social media pages as it unfolds.