Australia Weather News

Destructive winds sweeping across South Australia have damaged roofs, fences and caused power outages, with the BOM recording two "likely" tornadoes in Adelaide's northern suburbs. 

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for Adelaide, Mount Lofty Ranges, Eyre and Yorke peninsulas, Flinders, Mid North, Kangaroo Island, Riverland, the South East and parts of West Coast, North East Pastoral and North West Pastoral districts.

It sent out a "rare" tornado warning for Adelaide's northern suburbs and parts of the Adelaide Hills earlier this morning, but has since said "the immediate threat" had passed.

Senior BOM Meteorologist Jonathan Fischer told a press conference on Friday afternoon that northern parts of Adelaide were "likely" hit with two tornadoes in the early hours of the morning.

“On this cold front, based on radar evidence that we saw and also the pattern of damage, it’s likely that we saw two small and fast-moving tornadoes move across the northern suburbs of Adelaide,” he said.

“While tornadoes are certainly not a common occurrence in Adelaide, from time to time on these strong winter time cold fronts, we do observe this type of damage associated with tornadoes.

“It was certainly a significant event, but certainly not unprecedented.”

Mr Fischer said while parts of Adelaide had likely experienced the worst of the damaging winds this morning, other parts of the state could expect to be hit later.

"Certainly, the focus of the severe winds remains and particularly down through that south-east district there are some concerns for further damage today," he said.

"We want people to take care for the remainder of today because this event is not over yet."

Earlier, meteorologist Daniel Sherwin-Simpson told ABC Radio Adelaide some parts of the state had experienced wind gusts in excess of 100 kilometres per hour on Friday morning.

"[Tornadoes are] pretty rare and the warning comes out very rarely because it's only once we have a good guidance that this could happen," he said. 

He said the tornado warning was linked to "two particular thunderstorm cells", which had since eased.

The bureau has forecasted damaging winds of 60 to 70kph, reaching peak gusts of100kph, for Friday.

Wind speeds of 106kph were recorded at Outer Harbor, and the bureau warned the lower South East coastline could experience gusts of 115kph on Friday afternoon.

The State Emergency Service SA State Duty Officer Kane Murray said it responded to 160 incidents this morning.

"There have been a few people that have had parts of their roof removed, tiles and sheeting," he said.

"There's some fencing around some properties that's been blown over, but a lot of those tasks are trees down."

In one street at Elizabeth Park, several houses and fences were damaged by broken branches and strong winds.

Resident Carlos Jimenez said he came home from work after seeing the damage on his security cameras.

"I saw it but I didn't think it was going to be this bad. But, yeah, wow, I'm blown away," he said.

Another resident of the street was home when he heard a loud noise.

"It's like a huge explosion … it was like an earthquake," he said.

"I see a huge tree is falling down and there was also some branches spread out on my roof and my car."

An Elizabeth resident, Raymond, told ABC Radio Adelaide he was pulling out of his driveway when a fallen tree narrowly missed him in an incident he described was like "a mini tornado".

"It took out the front windows of our house, all the tree branches hit the front window, took out the tiles on our roof," he said.

"It just would have been on top of my car if I hadn't slammed it into drive, went forward into the carport again."

Para Hills resident Tanya Fisher woke up to find branches strewn across her front yard.

“It was about 6:20 this morning and I heard this crack of a century, and I came out and … we’ve got nothing left of my tree,” she said.

As of midday Friday, more than 4,000 Adelaide metropolitan residents were without power, while there have been reports of foamy water along West and Henley beaches.

Senior meteorologist Mark Anolak said there was a slight chance of "snow flurries" in the Mid North, the southern Flinders and in the Adelaide Hills.

He said hail and thunderstorms would accompany heavy rain on Friday, particularly in exposed coastal areas.

Discovery Parks, which owns a number of accommodation businesses across the state, said some people "who were within high-risk tree fall zones" at some parks were advised to leave on Thursday night ahead of severe weather.

Cold front move across SA

On Thursday, meteorologist Jonathan Fischer said "a blast of cold air" caused by an intensifying low-pressure system was expected to move across the state.

"That low is also going to direct quite a powerful cold front across southern parts of South Australia from early Friday morning," he said on Thursday.

"Not only will it be quite a wet day, a cold day, across South Australia — the major concern is damaging, and even locally destructive, winds.

"It's not your standard wintertime cold front — we don't see this type of conditions every week in winter."

State Emergency Service chief of staff David O'Shannessy said residents should secure loose items around their homes and avoid parking under trees.

"If these locally destructive winds are experienced, they absolutely have the capacity to cause significant damage," he said.