The Brisbane City Council issued on Thursday morning a heavy rain alert which could result in flash flood hitting the city. A trough is forecast to drift south and dump 50 to 150 millimetres of rain from Thursday afternoon through early Friday morning.

The council said the risk of flash flooding is within the next 24 hours. It identified the potential areas to be hit by flooding as Wide Bay and Burnett, south-eastern Central Highlands and Coalfields, eastern Maranoa and Warrego and the Darling Downs and Granite Belt districts.

The warning is also extended to the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Ipswich, Maroochydore, Warwick, Toowoomba, Stanhorpe, Goondiwindi, Gympie, Bundager, Harvey Bay, Maryborough, Taroom, Kingaroy and St George.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, a developing trough will travel slowly southward on Thursday. Ilona Cole from the bureau said, "We're expecting the intensity of the rainfall to develop throughout the day so the worst of it is expected in the afternoon and overnight tonight."