Australia Weather News

Wade Death has described a tornado that hit his Central West New South Wales property on Wednesday as being "like something out of a movie".

The Caragabal farmer has spent the day cleaning up around his farm after the twister destroyed a shed he had been standing in moments before the wild weather hit.

"I was in the shed … and 15 minutes later [it was gone]," he said.

Despite this, he said it was "dead quiet" at his home barely 500 metres away.

Mr Death's property was hit by one of several tornadoes that hit the region on Wednesday, flipping farming machinery, injuring livestock and stripping trees in its path.

The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed a tornado occurred at Tubbul near Young about 3:30pm, a second a short time later at Caragabal, and it received unconfirmed reports of a third at Cowra.

Power of a tornado

Mr Death said he did not think it was possible a storm could destroy the shed.

"There's 12 posts … with massive amounts of concrete and it's just either snapped the I-beam off or it's pulled the concrete out of the ground," he said.

He said the storm had left corrugated iron and debris strewn across his 5-kilometre-long property.

"There's corrugated iron up the top of trees," he said.

He said he had been assessing injuries to livestock.

"Whether they were hit by branches, rubble flying through the air, or even picked up and dropped, I [just] don't know," he said.

"They were a little bit lame [earlier], but they seemed fine this morning, which was great."

Roof ripped off

The twister missed Mr Death's home, but a young couple living nearby were not so fortunate.

The storm cell ripped the roof off their house, damaging about 90 per cent of the property.

Caragabal Royal Hotel publican Tanya Collins recalled hearing a very loud, "indescribable" noise.

"[It was] horrendous … I didn't know what it was," she said.

"My friend actually thought it was a train, but it was way louder [than that]."

Then Ms Collins received a phone call from a neighbour who said the roof had been blown off another home.

"That was the noise we heard," she said.

Ms Collins was worried the hotel had also been hit.

"I raced out the back to see if the pub was still intact and it was," she said.

Ms Collins was quick to offer the young couple who lost their home  a room at the pub.

"It's just a shame," she said.

"They're only young and trying to get ahead and then this happens."

But Ms Collins was glad no-one was injured.

"At the end of the day that's all that matters — things can be placed," she said.

Third tornado

Eleanor Webster was surprised to witness what she believed was a tornado at Cowra about 2pm on Wednesday.

"I was outside in the garden and we got this sort of small cloud come across," she said.

"It got very windy and the clouds were swirling, and after maybe 30 seconds it sort of moved across the front of the house, and then it started to drop a funnel."

She said she got in her car to try to see where the tornado had travelled to.

"It sort of went off into the paddock, which was a good thing, but [then] it disappeared into a big rain burst."

The SES has urged communities hit by the wild weather to stay away from fallen trees and damaged properties, and to be cautious on roads as the clean-up continues.