UPDATE: 10.30PM: A SEVERE storm warning for the Southern Downs passed several hours ago but storm damage to the power network left as many as 7500 Ergon Energy customers without power.

An Ergon spokesman said households across Warwick had been affected as well as Allora and rural areas to the north and east.

Repair crews have been working frantically throughout the evening to respond to the outages once the storm activity cleared, with thousands of households left without supply.

It is understood that most customers should have power back on by midnight or earlier but uncertainty remains about areas on the eastern side of Warwick and rural areas further east and north on the Swan Creek feeder line, out of the Warwick East substation, where around 1600 customers may experience longer delays.

The Ergon spokeman said it was a gradual process of switching on new sections of the line as it was repaired and asked customers to be patient while crews did their best to restore power through the night.

A severe storm warning was issued for the Southern Downs around 4.30pm with the Bureau of Meteorology having detected a band of severe thunderstorms on radar likely to affect areas to the south and west of Warwick by 5pm.

Damaging winds and large hailstones were said to be likely but as yet there are no reports of hail damage.

The weather outlook for Wednesday is for early fog but with fine conditions afterwards and a maximum of 20 degrees.