The tornado was seen northwest of Young, in the South Western Slopes region. Photo: NSW Rural Fire Service/Facebook.
A tornado has touched down in the Riverina region as wild weather sweeps across the state.
NSW Rural Fire Service picked up the shock find on their fire tower cameras as a low-pressure system moved eastwards across NSW.
“We spotted something that looked like a tornado … We had to look at it for a couple of minutes, saying ‘I don’t know if it is [one] or not,” operations manager for the South West Slopes Zone Jock Corcoran told Region.
“Then we saw it on the video feed, where you can clearly see the rotation – you can see it really flicking stuff off the ground. That made it very clear.”
A meteorologist in their fire behaviour team, who works for the Bureau of Meteorology, took a look and confirmed that they were looking at a tornado.
“We knew that there could be some severe thunderstorms during the afternoon, but we weren’t really aware that there was going to be a tornado!”
In its latest Severe Thunderstorm Warning, the BoM confirmed a tornado had been detected northwest of Young at about 3:30 pm yesterday afternoon (10 September).
Mr Corcoran also said he wasn’t aware of any reports of damage, with the tornado touching down on farm land.
“There’s not a lot of infrastructure out that way … It’s not like it was inside a town or a city, which would have a lot more chances of damage.”
Conditions are expected to ease today (11 September). Keep an eye on the BoM and NSW SES websites for regular updates.
Original Article published by Claire Sams on Region Riverina.
