Storms brewing as tributes flow for lightning victim

Robyn Wuth and Andrew Stafford | October 31, 2025

Tributes have poured in for a young woman fatally struck by lightning on a sporting field as Australia’s east coast braces for more wild weather.

Flowers have been left at the Queensland soccer ground where tragedy struck as a community mourns the 21-year-old victim, identified as Finley Bone.

She was reportedly practising her goal kicking at the Sunshine Coast’s Cooroy Sporting Complex when the fatal lightning strike hit late on Thursday.

Ms Bone was transported to Nambour Hospital in a critical condition but could not be revived.

Ms Bone was a “much-loved” member of the Noosa Lions Football Club, which shared a tribute to her on social media.

“A beautiful soul, taken way too soon,” one person posted.

Soccer fields at the sporting complex were closed on Friday out of respect.

Her mother Donna Markert said “no one can believe this happened”.

“Fin had her life taken away in a minute,” she told ABC News.

The complex is the home ground of Cooroora United Football Club, which also paid tribute.

“Out of privacy for those directly impacted, it is not yet appropriate to share details of the incident,” the club said in a statement.

“Those in and around the grounds, including both members and emergency services, showed admirable action, respect and care for each other.

“We ask our CUFC community remain respectful online, avoid any unhelpful speculation, and check in with one another.”

Police are preparing a report for the coroner.

The tragedy unfolded after the Bureau of Meteorology’s radar crashed as severe storms struck the region.

The weather bureau has faced heavy criticism after the launch of its new website on October 22, three weeks after the official beginning of storm season in Queensland, with politicians warning lives had been put at risk.

“The ‘rain rate’ radar images were not updating on the bureau’s website and the BOM Weather app for a brief time yesterday,” a bureau spokesman said in a statement.

“The bureau’s forecasts and warnings were not impacted by this outage and continue to be published on the bureau’s website, the BOM Weather app and our social media channels.”

The bureau will face another test this weekend with dangerous conditions developing across Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

More wild weather has been forecast including giant hail, destructive winds and tornadoes.

“It’s a pretty potent storm set up for the next couple of days in particular,” senior forecaster Kimba Wong told AAP.

“We’ve seen a couple of lightning strikes with a few storm cells up northwest of Brisbane … it’s just indicative that the atmosphere is ready to go.

“The ingredients are all there for potentially some severe storms to occur.”

Severe “supercell” storms are expected to develop on Saturday, bringing cyclonic winds, giant hail averaging 5cm in diameter, heavy rain and flash flooding.

The most dangerous activity is expected across southeast Queensland and northern NSW, including tornadoes, with storms in Victoria beginning to ease across the weekend.

“We could see a tornado occurring with the intense storms that we see developing over the next couple of afternoons, particularly into tomorrow, inland of southeast Queensland,” Ms Wong said.

“It would be very brief and localised, but we definitely couldn’t completely rule out one or two tornadoes occurring somewhere.”

Ms Wong said the Sunshine Coast tragedy was a devastating demonstration of the potential danger of storms.

“It just goes to show that any thunderstorm is potentially life-threatening,” she said.