Autumn’s wild blow

Gust hits 156km/h on Mt Wellington

TASMANIA was lashed by wild winds yesterday, uprooting trees and causing power outages.

Storm damage left about 4000 homes across the state without power early yesterday.

By last night, only 45 customers were without power at Campania.

The strong winds uprooted trees and broke branches.

A large tree split and fell on the tile roof of a Herdsmans Cove home at the height of the storm during the morning.

State Emergency Service crews removed the tree at the Lamprill Circle property.

The Hobart City Council closed the McRobies Gully Waste Management Centre because of the wild conditions.

Almost 1700 people were without power in southern Tasmania during the morning.

Just under 1000 Sandy Bay and Taroona residents lost power because of fallen trees, while about 713 customers at Berridale and Claremont were affected by outages, and a further 96 at Abels Bay and Eggs and Bacon Bay.

At Kingston, 1123 residents lost power, and a further 44 outages were reported for areas around Geeveston.

On the West Coast, there were 648 people without power near Zeehan.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds across much of Tasmania and a flood watch for the Huon River, which was later cancelled. The strong winds strengthened yesterday after snow fell on elevated areas around the state during the weekend.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Luke Johnston said a series of cold fronts crossed the state during the weekend.

“There was quite a vigorous one from Sunday to Monday. Winds peaked early morning around sunrise and somewhat eased by midday,’’ Mr Johnston said.

“The highest was 163km/h at Maatsuyker Island.

“Mt Wellington peaked at 156km/h and Cape Bruny hit 122km/h.”

He said Hobart had gusts of up to 104km/h.

“The next week is looking very settled by comparison for Tasmania.”

Conditions will ease further today, with an expected high of 15C after an early shower or two. The rest of the week and weekend will be warmer.

Tomorrow will be partly cloudy and 19C, with forecasts of fine weather and temperatures in the low 20s through the weekend.