Nowhere to hide as tornado blows in

TWO regional NSW towns were hit by a tornado and hailstones the size of tennis balls thrashed other parts of the state as wild thunderstorms moved in from South Australia on Thursday.

Storm clouds whipped up a tornado between Lithgow and Bathurst, which flattened a home and tore down power lines in the afternoon.

Three people were injured in the wild weather, which tore a path of destruction in the Central West towns of Meadow Flat and Clear Creek.

The rare weather event shocked residents in the rural area of Peel, northwest of Bathurst, as it formed from the dark clouds overhead during an afternoon thunderstorm.

“You always think you can go and hide under a bed but there is glass all under them,” local Kathy Jones, whose home was hit hard, said later.

“Everything was just swirling around, the house there’s just not much left … yeah a tornado. It took the house, the roof, it took everything.”

Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Jackson Browne said the low-pressure system created rotating thunderstorms that can generate tornadoes. The weather was fuelled by a vast “supercell” low-pressure system.