SA weather: Vigorous cold front to hit state bringing thunderstorms, heavy rain, hail and wild winds

It’s been bucketing down in Adelaide and much of SA as the weather bureau warns of severe weather, including more fierce winds, a chance of thunderstorms and hail.

A vigorous cold front is working its way across South Australia, bringing thunderstorms, heavy rain, wild winds, fog and the potential for hail.

Adelaide is expecting a maximum temperature of just 12C with up to 25mm of rain tending to showers in the evening.

Drenching rain has been pounding parts of the state, while fog is causing poor visibility in the Adelaide Hills and the bottom of the South Eastern Freeway.

It comes after wild winds ravaged SA on Tuesday, leaving clean-up crews stunned by the devastation unleashed by the wild weather, with a falling tree seriously injuring a driver and winds causing widespread damage and power blackouts. Several trees have fallen again on Wednesday.

A rain radar shows the extent of the wet weather sweeping SA on Wednesday.

Just before 11.30am on Tuesday a gum tree came down on top of a ute driving along Warren Rd, Williamstown. Picture: SA Police

Members of the public, with a grader and chainsaws, assisted emergency crews to remove the tree from the roof of the ute and free the trapped driver. Picture: SA Police

Storm damage around at Yankalilla. Picture: Amy Vaughan

The strong winds are returning on Wednesday with the cold front crossing the state with another burst of damaging winds developing along the West Coast and Mount Lofty Ranges during the morning and spreading northwards along the Flinders Ranges into the afternoon.

Peak gusts up to 100 km/h are tipped over coastal parts of SA on Wednesday morning.

Wind gusts of up to 90 km/h may extend further inland by midmorning and gusts of around 90/km/h are likely to develop over the Mount Lofty Ranges after sunrise and extend north over the Flinders Ranges during the afternoon.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Simon Timcke told ABC radio while rain was set to fall in the metropolitan area, as the rain pushed eastwards over the southern agricultural area, dust could become an issue as well.

“We are likely to see a little bit of raised dust again I think in part of the north today with some of those winds,” he said.

“(There is) a chance there could be a thunderstorm around, we are seeing a couple of strikes off the west coast now … with small hail about the Eyre Peninsula and the southern coast.

It is expected to stay cold around most of the state with a top of 12C for Adelaide, Mount Gambier 11C, Port Pirie 13C and Port Lincoln 14C.