Thousands without power as wild weather batters SA
Hailstorms and wind gusts of up to 130 kilometres per hour lashed the state on Friday – as trees were toppled amid a tornado warning.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) today issued Severe Weather Warnings for damaging winds across much of the state, which aren’t expected to ease until later tonight.
Tornado warnings were also issued but later recalled.
The State Emergency Service (SES) has responded to 235 incidents, with 112 still ongoing, at the time of writing.
A majority of these incidents have been trees torn down by widespread strong winds, with strong rainfall not as prevalent as expected.
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SA Power Networks has experienced a number of outages affecting a cumulative total of more than 7,000 customers so far today, with 30 outages affecting a total of 5,810 customers still ongoing at the time of writing.
The unusually high level of outages is leading to longer wait times for power restoration, with many of the ongoing outages not expected to be resolved until mid-afternoon.
SES incidents have been particularly concentrated in the northern and western suburbs of metropolitan Adelaide, as well as Mount Lofty.
There have also been hailstorms reported over Mount Barker and surroundings, and a mini tornado was sighted in Elizabeth Park earlier this morning.
BOM has also forecast the snow level dropping down as far as 700 metres, potentially resulting in a rare dusting of snow across the Flinders and Mt Lofty Ranges.
