Weather: Wild winds sweep Tasmania

Damaging winds have already begun to sweep the state, with gusts making it too dangerous for the Bruny ferry to set sail. Latest.

A fallen tree at White Beach. Image: Tasman council.

A wild morning of winds resulted in turned back planes and boats, brought down trees and left 10,000 people without power on Monday.

The risk of damaging winds eased in the afternoon and the severe weather warning in place for most of the state was cancelled, but gusty winds are expected to continue through the evening.

Windy weather wreaking havoc in the Clarence municipality. Image: Clarence City Council.

A Qantas flight was diverted to Sydney while a Link Airways plane landed in Launceston instead of Hobart due to the wind.

Ferry services to and from Bruny Island were suspended, with Ferry operator SeaLink posting to Facebook it was unsafe to berth the vessels at Roberts Point.

On Monday morning, a vegetation fire started after a powerline fell at Margate, blocking Sandfly Road in both directions for some time.

Tasmania Police urged people to be cautious when driving through the Huon Valley on Monday afternoon and evening as trees and branches had fallen in several locations.

Windy weather wreaking havoc in the Clarence municipality. Image: Clarence City Council.

Windy weather wreaking havoc in the Clarence municipality. Image: Clarence City Council.

Emergency services attended a landslide over the Murchison Highway at Rosebery on Monday afternoon.

A police spokesman said heavy machinery was on the way to assist with clearing the road, which was blocked 300 metres south of the Renison Mine entrance.

Just days after TasNetworks finished restoring power to all customers impacted by the recent severe weather event, TasNetworks said at midday on Monday there were almost 10,000 customers across 20 separate outages without power.

TasNetworks executive Renee Anderson said workers were doing everything they could to get power back on “as quickly as possible”.

Updated: Gusty winds have continued to cause headaches for Tasmanians, with several trees and powerlines brought down by the ferocious conditions across the state.

At White Beach a large tree is blocking a section of Free Street and powerlines have also been impacted.

“Council is unable to remove the tree until TasNetworks can isolate the power,” The council said on its Facebook page.

Meanwhile ferry services to Bruny Island are still suspended and are expected to be until at least 2:30pm.

Earlier: Ferry services to and from Bruny Island have been suspended this morning, as gusty winds sweep parts of Tasmania.

Ferry operator SeaLink said services were suspended “until further notice”.

“Conditions have changed dramatically in the past 20 minutes and is unsafe to berth the vessels at Roberts Point,” they said on their Facebook page.

It wasn’t just the ferry service affected by the winds, wild weather also led to fallen powerlines and a downed tree at Nichols Rivulet.

A big tree across the road just before Nicolas Rivulet turn off. Image: Terry Flakemore

Traffic is blocked in both directions while the scene is cleared.

Trees have also fallen on the Channel Highway at Deep Bay, prompting a warning for motorists to avoid the area.

Delays are also expected on Huon Road at Ferntree, after a tree was brought down onto the road.

And a fallen powerline at Sandfly Road in Margate sparked a bushfire.

There were thousands of customers left without power across the state, including in the Channel region, the southern suburbs of Howrah, Rokeby and Tranmere, Forcett, Kellevie, Nugent, Pawleena, Sorell, Wattle Hill and areas of the Derwent Valley.

Meanwhile flood advice is current for the Styx River and Tyenna River in the Derwent Valley.

Areas surrounding those catchments are urged to be on alert and prepare for the possibility of minor flooding.

September 22, 5pm: Tasmania’s wild spring weather is set to continue as peak gusts of 120 kilometres are possible on the East Coast on Monday and more damaging winds are forecast for much of the state including Hobart.

A fast moving low pressure system moving towards New Zealand will bring a cold front expected to brush by the state on Monday resulting in strong westerly winds, according to the BOM.

BOM meteorologist Michael Conway said it wasn’t a particularly wet or cold front, and the low and the front are moving through quickly so a short burst of strong winds are expected.

“Wind will be starting around tomorrow morning about the south and then extending throughout the rest of the state around midday,” Mr Conway said.

Peak gusts of 120 kilometres per hour are possible Between Scamander and Swansea, with a severe weather warning encompassing most of the east coast, south and south west.

General wind speeds are expected to reach around 60-70 kilometres and are expected to drop below warning thresholds late Monday afternoon.

Mr Conway said slope winds were possible in the area, coming down off the mountain ranges with the potential to bring some strong winds.

Looking ahead, Mr Conway said Wednesday will be another interesting day with potential for snow down to 200 metres overnight Wednesday.

Mr Conway said it was typical weather for September.
The renewed wind warning comes just days after TasNetworks restored the last outages caused by storm damage earlier this month.

“While we still have some work to do with individual customers and some ongoing challenges, this marks the completion of our official storm restoration efforts,” TasNetworks said on Thursday.

On Sunday TasNetworks was reminding people to secure their outdoor items as they have the potential to bring down power lines during damaging winds.

At the peak there were 47000 customers off at once due to wild winds wreaking havoc across the state which resulted in extensive damage to roads, communication systems and the power network.

On August 31, many stations had their record highest daily wind gust for August or for any month including a gust of 187 kilometres per hour at Maatsuyker Island, 161 kilometres per hour at Scotts Peak Dam and 156 kilometres per hour at Luncheon Hill, according to the BOM.

Originally published as Weather: Wild winds sweep Tasmania