Australia Weather News

A violent "tornado-like" storm cell has torn roofs from buildings, toppled trees and brought "golf-ball-sized hail" to a small rural community on the New South Wales Southern Tablelands.

The system hit Good Hope, about 12 kilometres outside Yass, on Saturday afternoon.

Yass Valley councillor and resident David Rothwell said the storm was unlike anything he had ever seen.

"You could actually see it blowing around, like wind going one direction, wind coming the other way, and then it started twisting," Cr Rothwell said.

"It made a hell of a noise and then things got pretty wild.

"Lightning strikes and big hail, golf-ball-sized, pounding windows and the roof."

Cr Rothwell described it as "pretty scary". 

"I went outside to try and grab all the furniture that was blowing and stuff going everywhere [but] gave that up pretty quick when I saw the dog get blown into the wood shed," he said. 

Storm 'hit very hard and very fast'

The NSW SES said the storm ripped off six roofs and damaged the roofs of 10 other buildings.

Strong winds toppled trees, initially blocking road access to the area.

SES commander for the Yass Hilltops area, Deanne Young, described it as a "tornado-like event".

"It hit very hard and very fast and did some pretty significant damage," she said.

"There did appear to be a bit of a funnel forming out of the clouds.

"We didn't get a lot of warning that there was even going to be a storm, but that's how the weather goes quite often in our little patch."

Good Hope Resort owner Elizabeth Richardson-Szabo said that a pergola roof from one of the houses in the holiday park came off and "went rolling up the paddock 120 metres away".

"[The roof] took out a power pole, and some power lines came down in the park," she said. 

She said the park was then without power for about eight hours. 

"Our poor neighbours they copped it pretty bad and I feel sorry for them," Ms Richardson-Szabo said. 

"But thankfully no one got hurt in the process so that's the biggest and best news."

Shipping container, horse float tossed around

For Good Hope resident Tom Walsh, the "phenomenal" weather event turned into "more than a bit of rain".

"It just came quick; it looked like it was building up and then it was just here. It was all over and done with in sort of 10-15 minutes," he said.

He said his shed no longer had a side wall and that a lot of the roof panels had been blown out.

A shipping container on his property was moved roughly 300 metres by the storm and took out a horse float in its path. 

"I lived in the Pilbara for 15 years, [and] had a few cyclones [that] we went through," he said.

"I've never seen anything like this. This much damage is crazy."

No injuries linked to the weather event have been reported, but Good Hope residents are now facing a lengthy clean-up.

"We just keep tidying now, figure out how to get a 40-foot shipping container back on its side and back in the right paddock," Mr Walsh said.

Cr Rothwell described the damage as "heartbreaking".

"I've got mates whose houses had their roofs ripped off," he said.

"It's terrible, sheds destroyed, horrible."