Damaging wind warnings for SA in new wintry blast, rain, hail, thunder expected, thousands without power

Power has been restored to about 10,000 SA households overnight, after wild weather lashed the state, bringing down powerlines. One man’s windows shattered from lightning.

Power has now been restored to thousands of South Australians, as wild weather lashed the state on Saturday, bringing down powerlines and trees.

Severe weather warnings for damaging winds are still in place for parts of the state this morning, as conditions are expected to ease this afternoon.

Strong wind gusts across the state peaked at Neptune Island near the Spencer Gulf on Saturday morning, with recorded speeds of 124km/h, and other high speeds were observed at Mt Crawford, 102km/h, and Cape Borda, 107km/h.

Other local wind gusts of up to 90km/h in metropolitan Adelaide brought down multiple powerlines in Torrens Park, Teringie, Blackwood and Holden Hill, cutting power to up to 10,000 South Australians throughout Saturday.

Most outages have since been restored, but 250 people in Charleston and Woodside are still without power, and certain areas of Adelaide’s east including Magill won’t have power restored until 3pm.

People on King William Street during last week’s wet weather. Picture: Michael Marschall

State Emergency Crews were run off their feet, responding to more than 560 incidents on Saturday, including fallen trees, flooding and other severe weather damage.

Jarred Archer’s North Plympton residence was struck by lightning, causing the windows to smash, about 1pm Saturday.

“We were just sitting inside when we heard the biggest bang ever, it sounded like a plane was landing on the house,” Mr Archer said.

He saw smoke coming from a palm tree, a flash of white outside the window, before the power went out to his home.

Upon inspection, the lighting had shattered three windows on impact.

JESUS!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/fA3pY4RsWa

— Matt Gilbertson (@matt_gilbertson) July 24, 2021

Hail at Semaphore! @theTiserpic.twitter.com/y8xMZTkSTP

— Elizabeth Henson (@Eliz_henson) July 24, 2021

People in Hahndorf and Brukunga even reported snow falling – or at least heavy hail.

The Adelaide Hills saw the highest rainfall totals from 9am Saturday until Sunday morning, recording 41mm at Ashton, 39mm at Lenswood, and 33mm at Balhannah.

Hail falling on the main street of Hahndorf. Picture: Comida Hahndorf

A severe weather warning for damaging winds is still in place this morning for parts of the state including Kangaroo Island, the Mt Lofty Ranges, Upper South East and Lower South East.

A marine wind warning is also current, with strong winds expected for metropolitan beaches.

Senior forecaster Brett Gage said winds and rain would ease on Sunday, with a slight chance of small hail in the morning.

Sunday will reach a top of 15C, with wind speeds of up to 40km/h.

After very cold, wet weather over most of the State today, another winter blast is set to impact southern SA this weekend 🌧️💨

⚠️Winds this weekend may be strong enough to cause damage, so keep an eye on the latest forecasts & warnings at https://t.co/e6fjwYsc5Gpic.twitter.com/cQoILjlDSU

— Bureau of Meteorology, South Australia (@BOM_SA) July 22, 2021

The weather front follows brisk temperatures this week, with Thursday recorded as Adelaide’s coldest day for 32 years. The city hit a high of just 9.7C, and Mount Barker dropped to a low of 1.7C.

Thousands of people lost power last weekend from a severe front that came across Adelaide from Thursday, July 15.

Nearly 600 calls were made to the SES for fallen trees and property damage in the storm from Thursday until Saturday.