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Sydney weather: Bureau of Meteorology confirms Kurnell was hit by a tornado

The extreme thunderstorm that tore through Kurnell was consistent with being an mid-intensity tornado with wind gusts well above the previous strongest recorded four decades ago in NSW.

The Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday released the preliminary results of its damage assessment of Wednesday's mid-morning storm with recorded wind gusts of 213km/h.

Residents of the beachside southern Sydney suburb had little warning of just how damaging the storm would be with a tornado warning issued at 10.27am and the record breaking winds hitting Kurnell less than five minutes later.

The Bureau said tornadoes were a "relatively rare phenomenon in Australia" and when they do happen they were usually on the lower end of the tornado intensity scale.

Wednesday's tornado was consistent with being an F2 putting it in the middle of the Fujuita Scale which classifies tornados between F0 to F5. 

"The intensity of the storm as detected on radar, combined with the peak wind gust recorded at Kurnell and narrow damage path, suggests it is extremely likely a tornado was associated with this very severe thunderstorm," Severe Weather Forecaster Michael Logan said.


"The wind gust recorded at Kurnell is the strongest maximum wind gust we have seen in NSW. It's well above the previous strongest recorded wind gust of 171km/h at Nobby's Beach in Newcastle in May 1974."

Mr Logan said the weather event was also unusual because it occurred in Sydney before lunch and moved from the sea to clip the coast around Kurnell.

"Most severe thunderstorms in Sydney occur during the afternoon, and either develop over Sydney or move through from the ranges to the west," he said.

Kurnell resident Beverley Bultitude, who has lived in the Sutherland Shire her entire life, said she'd never experienced a storm event like it.

"We had no warning, the sky went black, the winds started and it all happened very, very sudden," she said.

The second storm that hit Kurnell between 1pm and 2pm on Wednesday brought winds of 111km/h with 32mm of rain recorded in the neighbouring suburb of Cronulla.