Storms possible again after Perth hills hit by ‘mini tornado’

Thousands of residents and businesses in the Perth Hills are still without power, more than 17 hours after a freak storm tore through the area on Wednesday.

The storm, which brought strong wind, hail and heavy rainfall to the area, uprooted trees and ripped roofs from homes hit the area around 6pm Wednesday and was described by those who saw it as a ‘mini tornado’ lasting several minutes. Emergency crews received over 60 calls for assistance in the hours that followed.

Residents in Parkville, Mount Helena, Mundaring, Stoneville, Sawyers Valley and Gigegannup remain the most affected areas for power outages, with an estimated restorations time across the network of 8pm Thursday at the earliest.

Western Power said 12,200 homes in total had lost power, with destructive winds damaging equipment and bringing down powerlines.

Wind gusts associated with storms in the region reached 70 to 90km/h, but it is likely that localised wind gusts were stronger, the Bureau of Meteorology reported.

“These thunderstorms were driven by a combination of high daytime temperatures, reaching the mid-to-high 30s, and lingering tropical moisture left behind by the remnants of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Zelia,” the agency said.

“Thunderstorms are again possible around the Perth Hills on Thursday afternoon, however these are more likely over areas to the east and about the Wheatbelt. Severe thunderstorms are also possible and may produce damaging wind gusts and large hail. ”

Amaroo Retreat, in Mount Helena, was one business impacted by the storm. Owner Kirstin Westerman told Radio 6PR the weather had changed rapidly.

“I think best described as a tornado, it just came on out of the blue, went from blue sky to black, intense wind with hail, and the devastation was catastrophic for us unfortunately and our surrounding neighbours,” she said.

“Our restaurant and kitchen, two chalets, our shed, a pool, our water tank has been flattened. We have significant damage and will be closed for a considerable amount of time I think.”

Westerman said she had run up to the restaurant from her home on the property as the storm hit to check on the guests who had been staying, entering the building right as a tree crashed down onto it.

She said it was “extremely lucky” no one was hurt.

Possum Valley Animal Sanctuary owner Mark Hayman said they had lost a number of fences, with trees falling across them, and some water tanks had been destroyed.

None of the 320 animals living at the property were harmed.

“We have quite a dedicated team of volunteers so … we had eight or so that came up just to help us do some assessment and make sure everybody was secure back in their shelters and paddocks and quickly do some repairs to some fences and clear some trees off the main road so people could get in and out,” he said.

“We were able to get some sleep last night, comfortable knowing that everybody was safe and secure.”

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Johnathon Howe said residents were faced with significant damage.

“We did have reports of tornados and tornado-like damage across the region, so the Bureau staff will be doing a full assessment today looking at the radar as well as doing a damage assessment to determine whether or not it was a tornado,” he said.

“The highest wind gust we did see at observation stations were between 80 to 90 kilometres per hour, but it is likely that in these localised areas those wind speeds were much greater than that to cause this damage.”

Department of Fire and Emergency Services metropolitan operations assistant commissioner Danny Mosconi said it was “quite an unusual event.”

“My understanding is these types of events happen about five times a year across the southwest land division,” he said.

“We might not have had the rotation type of movement that a tornado has, but certainly unusual event.”

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