‘Mini tornado’ rocks remote NT community Willowra

Emergency service volunteers have been deployed to a remote Northern Territory community after a “mini tornado” caused chaos. See the photos of the damage.

Residents in the remote Central Desert region have been the unlucky victims of a “mini tornado” that left chaos across a community.

Willowra, located about 300km north of Alice Springs, was hit by a large storm cell about 5.30pm on Tuesday.

St John NT operations manager Craig Garraway told ABC radio that emergency services attended to one injured resident in the community.

“We have reports of a mini tornado going through there causing quite substantial damage, removing roofs off houses (and bringing) trees down on vehicles,” Mr Garraway said.

A severe storm that hit Willowra in the Northern Territory on Tuesday saw roofs ripped off houses and cars crushed by fallen trees. Picture: NT Police

“(There was) a fair bit of rain there and a little bit of flooding.

“My understanding there after we spoke with the health link is that their vehicle had been damaged by a tree.

“We had an 18-year-old male there where a beam had fallen on his leg.

“Thankfully (it caused) only bruising and they were able to manage that out there.”

The storm ripped up trees. Picture: NT Police

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning, with the possibility of damaging winds and large hailstones, for the area from 3.30pm.

A BOM spokesman said the weather agency was then alerted by emergency services of a “tornado” causing damage to the Tanami district.

Police say the storm lasted about 15 minutes and brought on 2.5cm of rain within that time.

“Power was isolated to a number of residences due to power line damage and an inundation of water,” NTES Manager of Southern Command Ian Carlton said.

A car became stuck between tree debris. Picture: NT Police

“Additional resourcing from police and the Alice Springs emergency service volunteers have also been deployed to the community to assist with the response.

“Severe weather in the NT can intensify and shift direction quickly.

“Events like this are a good reminder to Territorians to check their emergency plan and cyclone kits.”

BOM meteorologist Rebecca Patrick said accurate conditions of the storm are hard to quantify due to the community’s remote location, but the event is not uncommon for the NT at this time of the year.

“There was a trough moving through the area yesterday and we had north-westerly winds ahead of that which brought some moisture down from the north,” Miss Patrick said.

“Those conditions always help create a favourable environment for thunderstorm activity.

“There was quite a widespread area of thunderstorm activity across the Barkly, Tanami and Simpson districts throughout much of the day and we even had some storms still going there this morning (Wednesday).”

In 2019, a 5.4 magnitude earthquake struck the Tanami Desert, which was felt by Willowra residents about 100km away.

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