Tornado flips car in Frankland River as storms hit southern WA

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

A tornado has flipped a car and caused minor damage as storms continue to batter southern Western Australia.
As thunderstorm warnings were issued across parts of southern WA on Tuesday afternoon, a tornado touched down near Frankland River — about 280 kilometres south-east of Perth.
Resident Nathan Macgregor videoed the tornado as it formed from a thunderstorm sweeping across the Great Southern town.
Mr Macgregor said he was watching lightning from the storm when a funnel started to appear.
"It started about a kilometre away … it's not something you usually see," he said.
"I was like, 'Wow, look at that'. The first thing you do is get your phone out and take some photos and video."
The tornado left a path of destruction over about two minutes, destroying trees and damaging vehicles.
"One of the boys' tractor's roof got ripped off and his ute got tipped over," Mr Macgregor said.
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) duty forecaster Angeline Prasad said while she was surprised there was a tornado, there were severe thunderstorms in the area.
Ms Prasad said most people thought of the United States when it came to tornadoes, but this was a different type of system known as a "coldie" — a cold season phenomenon.
"It's a rotating funnel as a thunderstorm develops," she said.
"They don't last for long, usually just a few minutes … usually associated with quite vigorous thunderstorms."
Ms Prasad said the BOM would investigate further.
A low pressure system is passing the south of the state sparking wild weather, including for much of the southern half of WA, with several thunderstorm warnings issued including for damaging hailstones.
Golf ball sized hail hit the Wheatbelt town of Wagin, with residents reporting damaged roofs and vehicles.
Wagin resident Sherryl Chilcott said she ran inside her carport as the hail storm hit.
"She came down big time and I was pinned there for a while," she said.
"It felt like 15 minutes, but was probably only three to four. It was huge."
Residents collected the large hailstones, many of which were oddly spiky-shaped.
Ms Prasad said the phenomenon was caused by updraughts drawing hailstones together.
"During thunderstorms with vigorous updraughts and downdraughts, some of these smaller hailstones will go through melting and refreezing moments," she said.
"They clump together and therefore you get those really oddly shaped larger hailstones falling to the ground."
Ms Prasad said the low pressure system would brush close to the coast on Wednesday with heavy showers and potentially damaging thunderstorms.
The worst of the conditions will be in the south-west of the state in areas in and around Windy Harboua and Walpole.
Ms Prasad said hail and thunderstorms were possible but heavy rain was the biggest threat.
"The higher hazard will be heavy falls along lower west, south-west coasts … we could see really good rainfalls totals of 30 millimetres to 50mm, with a possible event total of up to 100mm," she said.