A mother has revealed the bruises she suffered while shielding her baby from a freak hail storm that lashed southern Queensland.

Fiona Simpson and her child were caught in their car when the storm hit near Kingaroy on Thursday.

Ms Simpson shielded the baby and let her own body bear the brunt as the huge hail stones smashed through her car windows.

Camera Icon A close-up of Fiona Simpson’s bruises after she was caught in a hail storm. Credit: Fiona Simpson/Facebook

She later posted confronting images of her injuries on social media, her back, shoulders and arms a mess of angry welts and bruises.

“I’ve learnt my lesson today, never drive in a hail storm!” she wrote on Facebook

The Bureau of Meteorology said the South Burnett region and other parts of the southeast copped the brunt of three severe storms, two of them super-cell storms, with two tornadoes also sighted.

Camera Icon Fiona Simpson and her child. Credit: Fiona Simpson/Facebook

At Blackwater, in central Queensland, winds gusted to 144km/h, a wind speed associated with a Category 2 cyclone.

The winds tore roofs off homes and businesses, and hail stones as large as tennis balls destroyed wheat, barley, melon and stone fruit crops, downed power lines, and cut roads.

Queensland Dairy Farmers president Brian Tessmann said the storm’s fury at his Coolabunia farm was like nothing he’d ever seen, with winds tearing the roofs from his home and dairy.

“The roof came off and it was bedlam from there, trying to hold doors shut, and water coming through the ceiling, and things flying through the air. It was quite something,” he told the ABC.

“I saw it leaving out the window as it went in a couple of large pieces.”