Queensland Mines Inspectorate | Alert | No.453 V 2 | 13 November 2025

Managing the risks of storm season

Summary

• Storm season in Queensland typically runs between November and April each year.
• Getting your site ready for a storm includes developing an emergency management plan (EMP) for your site and training your staff in first aid and evacuation procedures.
• This Safety Alert contains useful information to help your site prepare for a storm, as well as individual checklists.

Issue Explained

The likelihood of severe tropical cyclones is higher than average during the Australian cyclone season (November–April), however, cyclones are not the only weather hazard in the Australian tropics.

Tropical lows can also cause damaging winds, widespread rain and dangerous flooding. Refer to the Bureau of Meteorology website for more information.

Storms can damage your business through flooding, high winds, and flying debris. Lightning strikes have also been known to cause tyre explosions at mine sites.

Learnings

Managing risks like misfires, flying hazards and lighting strikes

• There is an increased propensity for fume events and potential misfires in wet weather. Sites should take particular attention to the selection of explosives if blasting is to continue during the wet season.
• If wild weather is forecasted, as a precaution sites should consult explosives manufactures and substitute dry hole products for wet hole equivalents.
• All employees must be made aware of increased risk during lightning strikes.
• Please see RSHQ’s Safety Alert 462 – Lightning Hazards which advises:
  • Lightning strikes at mines and quarries during storm season are relatively common and can affect heavy mobile equipment (HMEs).
  • Lightning can strike equipment or the ground directly, cause tyre explosions in vehicles with air-filled tyres (due to tyre pyrolysis) or travel through conductive parts of vehicles and buildings, electrocuting workers.
  • Filling HME tyres with greater than 95% nitrogen minimises the risk of tyre explosions due to pyrolysis.
  • The safest place for workers during a lightning event is in a secure building with lightning protection.
  • A court outcome confirmed no surface mines should operate heavy machinery when lightning is very close to or at site, even when HME have nitrogen filled tyres.
• Ensure structures and buildings are sound. Storm events have resulted in improperly secured buildings being over-turned by strong winds, potentially causing severe injuries to anyone inside.
• For this reason, there must be a system to ensure that temporary and semi-permanent relocatable structures on a site are adequately designed, located, constructed and anchored.
• To prevent movement during a storm, single or multi-modular semi-permanent (or permanent) units (mobile dongas, offices, crib rooms or ablution blocks) must be mounted and anchored to pre-established concrete and steel pedestals and/or other specifically designed anchoring points, in accordance with building standards. Consider standalone rather than attached awnings for mobile huts. Also consider precautions for other structures vulnerable to the effects of strong wind, including workshops, tanks, conveyor belts or mobile equipment such as cranes.
• Sites should also check their communication and mutual assistance protocols with adjacent mines or other offsite resources.
• The site must ensure adequate resources, facilities and procedures are available before, during and after a storm.
• The site's EMP covering these arrangements must be included in the Safety and Health Management System, Safety Management System, or Safety and Security Management System (system relevant to your site).
• The EMP must be based on a risk assessment. See the checklists below.

Seasonal risk assessments

Before each storm season commences, develop a seasonal risk assessment based on the specific hazards that might be present on site. RSHQ recommends doing the following:

• visually inspect the mine or site, including drainage structures
• survey pick-ups to ascertain where drainage issues may exist
• using weather modelling and information from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology
• review water management strategy with consideration of current levels and possible rain. Be aware of Safety Alert 408 - Impact of flooding on slope stability at mines and quarries
• inspect buildings, workshops, demountables and shipping containers
• use appropriate reports (e.g. water level reports, structural integrity, geotechnical hazards)
• use appropriate and relevant technical input
• consider using the ‘Preparing for a storm checklist’ (see ‘References’ below) or a site-specific checklist
• Utilise the EMP, the EMP risk assessment and seasonal risk assessment to develop the seasonal action plan. Using a team approach, assign responsibility for actions and ensure that completed actions are tracked. You may consider assigning single point accountability for this action plan completion.

Warning and evacuation systems

A site's safety system should have:

• a process for identifying and warning anyone who could be affected by severe weather events
• a system for moving people to a place of safety including considerations for evacuation of people off site
• timely actions to bring risk into acceptable limits.

Have a rescue-system ready. An adequate emergency response and rescue system must be in place in case a severe weather event causes injury, entrapment or damage to buildings or infrastructure.

References and further information

• Weather forecasting - Bureau of Meteorology
• Attachment 1 - Preparing for a storm checklist
• Attachment 2 - Recovering from a storm checklist
• Safety Bulletin 205 - Risk management during lightning events.
• Safety Alert 462 – Lightning Hazards
• Safety Alert 408 - Impact of flooding on slope stability at mines and quarries