Southeast Australia battered by powerful storm system

A late spring weather system, that sent a dust storm across Australia‘s New South Wales (NSW) region and its capital, Sydney, has caused damage through wind strength alone.

According to Weatherzone, the sheer force of Wednesday night’s winds removed roofs from houses and brought down trees and power lines in the city of Adelaide.

“We measured genuine gale force winds at Adelaide airport for about six hours and had gusts up to 98 kilometres per hour,” meteorologist Peter Webb said.

“Those sustained gale force winds also lifted the tide levels by 1.6 metres, but fortunately this corresponded with the low tide, else we’d have been in real trouble,” he added.

The strongest gust recorded in the state of South Australia was 132km/h at Neptune Island.

The stormy system, that reinvigorated on Friday just east of the Bass Strait, developed gales over parts of southeast Australia, fanning bushfires and felling trees.

Severe weather warnings for damaging wind gusts were in place for parts of central and southern NSW, central and eastern Victoria, and northeastern Tasmania on Friday morning.

The highest wind gust recorded on Friday was 126km/h over Wilson’s Promontory, a peninsula sticking out from Victoria into the strait.

Winds further up the coast of NSW fanned the flames of a bushfire near Salt Ash, north of Sydney. Wind gusts at nearby Newcastle airport increased from around 50km/h to 80km/h on Friday.

The winds have brought down a number of trees, blocking roads and cutting power lines.

According to Ausgrid, power was cut for around 1,400 households. This came a day after fallen trees and branches blocked roads in the suburbs of Sydney.

The intense low pressure is moving further out into the Tasman Sea, which will allow the winds to ease on Saturday.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies