What's that smoke smell over Brisbane?

THE smell of smoke blanketing Brisbane and beyond tonight is the result of a large bushfire on Bribie Island.

Winds blowing from the north are carrying the smoke down south.

Senior forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology Rick Threlfall said he wouldn't be surprised if the bush fire smell was apparent right to the New South Wales border.

"Winds are coming from the north east and bringing the smoke down from Bribie Island," he said.

"The smoke smell could go for a long while; the winds are fairly fresh at the moment."

He said smoke from the large bushfire on the island would be "probably a few thousand feet up" where winds were blowing at 50km/h.

"So that's carrying the smoke quiet a long way," Mr Threlfall said.

Overnight the winds will slightly change and move to the north-west which may take some of the smell away.

But if the fire is still burning tomorrow afternoon the winds will blanket Brisbane with the smell again.

Queensland Fire and Rescue spokesman Brett Finnis said communication centres were receiving a lot of 000 calls about the smell of smoke.

"The smokes going through Samford and the Gap at the moment. They're getting a lot of false alarms in Brisbane because of the smoke."

In Brisbane today the top temperature was 30.1C at 2pm while Ipswich peaked at 32.7C.