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.
