Winds cause damage, delay planes

WILD winds whipped across Tasmania yesterday with gusts in Hobart exceeding 100km/h, and temperatures are set to drop this weekend as winter weather continues to grip the state.

Winds reached 128km/h at Maatsuyker Island and 117km/ h at Mt Wellington yesterday, while a gust in Hobart reached 102km/h about 1pm.

A home at Coningham in the South lost its roof in the wind and it ended up crashing into the deck of neighbour Wes Chalke’s home.

“I was actually up a ladder at the time and it sounded like the whole world was caving in,” Mr Chalke said.

“It just lifted off and turned over and flew through the air and just smashed into our veranda. We were very lucky that we didn’t actually get any damage in the house, but it’s pretty bad outside.”

Strong winds also caused delays at Hobart Airport. A king tide peaked above 1.9m at Battery Point about 6.30pm.

Despite the severe winds, Hobart reached a maximum of 18C yesterday, but Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster David Matthews said the expected top today and tomorrow would drop to 13C.

“There’s a high chance of some showers over the weekend as well, not too much, looking at maybe one to two millimetres or so each day and maybe some hail,” Mr Matthews said.

Snow will fall to about 500m this evening and about 600m tomorrow morning.