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Storm season starts 1 October — and this year looks different
Storm season in Queensland starts on 1 October. From then until the end of December we are in the peak months for severe storms and hail across south-east Queensland, which is exactly what the BOM severe weather season advice is built around.
This year comes with a wrinkle. A strong El Niño was declared back in June, and you can see where things sit on the Bureau of Meteorology ENSO outlook. For us that usually means hotter and drier, with a higher fire risk — the AFAC seasonal bushfire outlook spring 2026 has south-east Queensland flagged for heightened bushfire risk.
Here is the bit people get wrong. El Niño does not cancel hail. Spring storm cells still build and still drop hail in El Niño years. So this summer you are not preparing for heat or storms. You are preparing for both.
We are based at Ellen Grove, right next door to Forest Lake. The 20 km ring we work in every day covers three councils — Brisbane, Ipswich and Logan — and all three treat trees a bit differently. More on that further down.
What El Niño does to trees: heat, drought stress and limb drop
Drought stress is simple enough. Less water in the ground, so the tree can’t push as much up to the leaves. You see leaf scorch around the edges, a canopy that thins out, and leaves dropping earlier than they should. The tree is rationing.
A tree under that kind of pressure sheds weight. Sometimes that is a few twigs. Sometimes it is a limb the size of a small tree coming out of a gum on a hot, still afternoon with no wind at all to explain it. We see more of that in hot dry summers. Not a percentage, not a statistic — just what turns up in the work diary.
The ones to keep an eye on around here are the big old gums in Inala and Forest Lake. They have been in the ground a long time, they carry a lot of weight out on the ends of the limbs, and they are usually close to a house or a shed. Out in the newer Springfield estates it is a different problem: younger trees in shallow topsoil over fill dry out much faster than people expect, and they can look fine right up until they don’t.
If you want to know what to actually look for, we have written that up separately in the warning signs of a dangerous tree.
Hail and wind: why October to December still matters
Hail does two things to a tree. It strips the canopy, which takes away the leaves the tree needs to recover, and it wounds the bark, which lets decay in. Neither shows up as a problem straight away. Both show up later.
Wind is more direct. It finds the weak points that were already there — dead wood still hanging in the canopy, two stems of the same size growing out of one tight fork, a limb with all its weight out at the tip and nothing holding the middle. Wind doesn’t create those. It just finds them.
Which is why a tree that sailed through last summer can fail this one. If it copped hail, or the ground around it got dug up for a pool or a shed or a new driveway since, it is not the same tree it was.
When one does come down at 2am across the driveway, that is what emergency tree removal in Brisbane is for, and we do take those calls. But nobody enjoys them, least of all the bloke standing in the rain in his dressing gown.
Bushfire risk on acreage: Greenbank, Forestdale and the southern fringe
The AFAC outlook has south-east Queensland at heightened risk this season. If you are on acreage at Greenbank, Forestdale or New Beith, that is a spring job, not a January job. Once it is 38 degrees and blowing, nobody is running a mulcher through your understorey.
Fuel load is the thing you can actually control. Dead standing timber, built-up scrub, a wall of lantana along the back fence — that is what carries fire towards the house.
Logan’s rule, in plain words: native vegetation within 10 metres of a house can generally be cleared for bushfire protection on eligible lots. That is the shape of it, but your lot size and the overlays sitting on your block decide whether it applies to you. Check with council or ask us — we do this every week.
The tidy way to knock fuel load down on acreage is forestry mulching and fire breaks. The machine chews the scrub and leaves it on the ground as mulch, so there is nothing to cart away and nothing sitting in a burn pile waiting for a fire ban.
The storm-prep inspection: what an arborist actually looks for
When we walk a property before storm season, this is the list:
- Dead wood and hangers. Dead limbs still up in the canopy, and broken pieces caught up in the branches waiting for a gust.
- Cracks and cavities. Splits in a fork, hollows in the trunk, old tear-outs where a limb has already come off badly once.
- Fungal brackets at the base. Shelf fungus at ground level usually means decay in the root plate. That is the one that drops the whole tree, not just a limb.
- Lean with soil heave. A lean is not automatically a problem. A lean with the ground lifted or cracked on the opposite side is.
- What is underneath. Limbs over the roof, the pool, the driveway, the kids’ trampoline.
- Contact with the service line. Energex trims the street lines. The line from the street to your house is the owner’s responsibility, and there is a 3 metre exclusion zone for anyone not trained to work near it.
What we do about it depends on what we find. Usually it is dead-wooding — taking the dead material out and leaving a healthy tree behind. Sometimes it is reducing end-weight on the limbs that overhang something expensive. Removal only when it is genuinely the right call, and we will tell you when it isn’t.
All of it is pruned to AS 4373, the Australian Standard for pruning amenity trees. That means proper cuts at the right point so the tree seals over them. It is not lopping. Lopping — topping a tree off at random and walking away — leaves a mess of weak regrowth that is more dangerous in five years than what you started with.
Timing matters more than people think. An inspection in late September or early October costs you an hour of your Saturday. The same tree in late November costs you a night, a crane, and a conversation with your insurer. We have had sawdust in the boots every storm season for years — the ones that go badly are the ones nobody looked at in September.
Council rules before you touch anything
Every council in our patch is different, so check before the chainsaw comes out.
Brisbane City Council. Start with the protected vegetation map to see whether your tree is covered. You do not need a permit to prune up to 20% of a tree’s live foliage in a 12 month period. If a tree is an immediate hazard you can act, but you need to get photos and an arborist report to council within 10 business days. Permits, when you do need one, are free. We have the detail written up in full under Brisbane City Council tree regulations.
Logan City Council. The Planning Scheme 2015 Biodiversity and Waterway overlays are what to look at. Lots under 5,000 m² outside the environmental and rural zones are generally exempt.
Ipswich City Council. If you are at Springfield or anywhere in the Ipswich patch, City Plan 2025 has applied since 1 July 2025 and the Biodiversity overlay OV1 may catch your block. Check the ePlan or ring council — the approval you need depends on your zone and overlay, and we are not going to guess it for you.
The honest answer for all three: check with council or ask us. We do this every week.
Green waste, mulch and fire ants
Forest Lake, Doolandella and the whole Ipswich and Logan side of our patch sit inside the fire ant biosecurity zone. That changes what you can do with the material once the tree is down.
For mulch, the published options are: move it within 24 hours of it being delivered, or follow the fire ant management steps for that material, or take it straight to an approved waste facility. If none of those can be met, it should not be moved without a biosecurity instrument permit. The detail is on the fire ant movement controls guide.
Most of the time we chip on site and handle the green waste compliantly, so it is not something you have to think about. It matters when you are the one moving a trailer load — a load of chip from a mate’s place across the zone boundary is exactly the thing the rules are about.
Worth a note in the diary: Brisbane City Council runs a free green-waste drop-off weekend on 10–11 October, with Willawong the closest tip to us. Good weekend to clear out what you have already cut.
Your September–October to-do list
Five things, and none of them take long:
- Walk the yard. Look up. Dead limbs, hangers, anything hanging over the roof.
- Photograph the big trees. Date-stamped photos now are worth a lot if you end up making an insurance claim in February.
- Check the council map. Two minutes online tells you whether your tree is protected before you plan anything.
- Book an inspection for anything you are not sure about. An arborist looking at it is cheaper than an arborist reporting on it after the fact.
- Clear the gutters and tie down the loose gear. Trampolines, umbrellas, bins. Not our trade, but it’s the stuff that goes through a window.
Get Ready Queensland Week runs 5–11 October. Use it as your deadline — if it is sorted by then, you are ahead of the first cell.
If you want the longer version of all this, we keep our storm season preparation guide updated, and there is a local rundown for anyone after tree services in Forest Lake.
If you’ve got a big gum over the house and you’re not sure it’ll cope with another summer, get us out before the first cell hits — request a free quote at dynamictreesolutions.com.au or call 1300 239 626.
Frequently asked questions
When does storm season start in Queensland?
Storm season officially runs from 1 October, and October to December are the peak months for severe storms and hail in south-east Queensland.
Does an El Niño mean fewer storms in Brisbane?
Not reliably. A strong El Niño usually brings hotter, drier conditions and higher bushfire risk, but spring hail and thunderstorms still happen, so you need to prepare for both.
Do I need council approval to prune a tree before storm season?
In Brisbane you can prune up to 20% of a tree's live foliage in 12 months without a permit, but protected trees and larger works vary by council, so check the council map or ask us.
