Perth tornado: State could be hit with more freak storms, with BOM recording five tornadoes in WA each year

Western Australia could be hit with more freak storms, with the Bureau of Meteorology recording up to five tornadoes in the State’s South West each winter.

The Bureau on Thursday said an initial assessment indicated a “low intensity tornado” tore through City Beach about 5.25pm on Wednesday.

It said Australia experienced up to around 80 tornadoes each year, but said the figure could be far higher because many occurred in remote regions and went unreported.

About five tornadoes are reported in south-west WA during the cool season.

The last tornado to rip through the State’s South West was in Frankland River — about 120km north-west of Albany — on June 3.

The Bureau said a tornado was defined as a “violently rotating column of air that extends from a cloud to touch the ground”.

“Tornadoes form when weakly rotating air near the surface is rapidly drawn upwards into a cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud,” a spokesperson said.

“As the air column rises, it stretches, increasing the speed of rotation.”

The Bureau said there were two types of tornadoes — supercell and non-supercell — with Wednesday night’s windstorm believed to be a “small supercell”.

“Radar observations suggest this tornado may have been associated with a small supercell, although the mechanism is not actually clear-cut,” a spokesperson said.

“Predicting tornadoes is difficult and specific warnings are only issued if signs consistent with tornadoes occurring are visible on radar or direct observations are received.”

It comes just more than a year after a freak tornado ripped through Bunbury, damaging hundreds of homes and sending two people to hospital in May 2024.

Forty-one locals were forced to evacuate as wind gusts blew off roofs and uprooted trees, with the town recording up to 14.2mm of rain in less than an hour.