Tornado flips ute in WA, golf ball-sized hail damages property

News.com.au

2 days ago

A tornado has flipped a car in southern Western Australia as large hail stones lashed a nearby town.
Southern WA was pounded by storms on Tuesday, including a tornado about 300km southeast of Perth.
A Frankland River farmer filmed the tornado; the weather system flipped a ute and ripped the cab walls off a tractor.
The farmer told the ABC that he had been watching the storm's lightning strikes when the tornado funnel started forming.
The tornado was about a kilometre away from him and lasted about two minutes.
Numerous trees were ripped out of the ground as well.
'I was like, 'Wow, look at that'. The first thing you do is get your phone out and take some photos and video,' he said.
Several storms brought damaging hail stones across the southern half of WA on Tuesday. Golf ball-sized stones fell at the town of Wagin. Video shows the stones pounding down on Wagin's homes and streets.
A thunderstorm is forecast to bring up to 40mm of rain across Perth on Wednesday; much of the southern half of the state will be wet too.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a marine wind warning but no other warnings for WA.
There are frost warnings for areas of South Australia.
Parts of the of the Mid North, Riverland, Murraylands, Upper South East and Lower South East are waking up to frozen conditions on Wednesday.
Parts of northern and northeast Victoria have frosty conditions on Wednesday as well.
Out well beyond the east coast, seas up to 5m are forecast around Lord Howe Island from Thursday morning.
'These conditions may produce significant beach erosion, particularly about south-facing coasts,' a bureau warning cautions.
'Beach conditions could be dangerous and people should stay well away from the
surf and surf-exposed areas.'
This weather system is causing dangerous conditions on the mainland too. People fishing, swimming or boating on the Hunter, Sydney and Illawarra coasts should be particularly cautious on Wednesday.