Millions of Australians are being told to brace for more wild weather from the same system that brought a tornado to regional New South Wales.
Severe thunderstorms have swept across parts of south-eastern Australia this week, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake, and more are forecast to hit today.
Weatherzone says there is potential for supercells in north-east NSW and south-east Queensland on Friday, “capable of producing destructive winds and tornadoes”.
“This tornado (on Thursday) is part of a prolonged thunderstorm outbreak in eastern Australia, which has been going since Tuesday and is likely to last until Saturday,” Weatherzone said.
The system is bringing damaging and destructive weather to parts of the country, such as the NSW Central West.
A tornado hit Clear Creek, north-east of Bathurst in the NSW Central West on Thursday, injuring three people. There were reports of damage to houses, trees and powerlines in the area.
Cathy Jones and her family could only watch the destructive force, which she described as “a big black cloud that was swirling around”, as it hit her home.
“It took the house… the roof, trampoline up a tree,” she said.
“You always think you can hide under the bed but there was glass everywhere.”
In one blessing for Ms Jones’ family was that no one was injured.
“We were all in the car at the time,” she said.
The village of Meadow Flat was also smashed, with corrugated iron roofs ripped away and some homes destroyed
Agata Mielska from the Bureau of Meteorology said there was a line of damage “roughly 25 to 30 kilometres”.
Queensland braces for big wet
Storms and heavy rain have lashed parts of Brisbane, with 2cm of hail in Sherwood and power outages reported in the Samford Valley on Thursday.
The Bureau of Meteorology also reported up to 6cm of hail in the southern Darling Downs.
A severe thunderstorm warning was still in place for large chunks of Queensland on Thursday night, with storms continuing to develop over central and southe-eastern districts.
The storm system is expected to shift on Friday towards the north-east, with severe storms possible in Queensland, including Brisbane, and north-east NSW.
The system is expected to move towards the Tasman Sea on Saturday, with residual storm and shower activity along the east coast.
Health alert for Victoria
“The weather predictions for the next week are ideal for thunderstorm asthma,” Victoria’s AMA president Dr Roderick McRae told Today.
“Anybody with a known diagnosis of asthma, please take your preventative medications.”
One paramedic describing the emergency department conditions as “already apocalyptic”.
“It’s only a prediction,” Dr McRae said.
Rare tornado rips through NSW Central West town
“But it’s certainly stressing the system. The ambulances are already queued outside. So certainly I hope there’s plenty of oxygen and adrenaline available in all of the emergency departments.”
The wet and stormy weather will also spread to the ACT and across the Bass Strait and affect parts of northern and eastern Tasmania.
