State Emergency Services (SES) volunteers said it was lucky no one was injured when wild winds gripped the central west on Tuesday night and brought down three trees in Orange.
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SES volunteers were called to Clergate Road, by police, at 4.30am Wednesday to remove a “large” tree which had fallen on the road and blocked it.
Orange SES operations officer Patrice Watson said it was lucky the tree fell early in the morning which meant there were few cars on the road.
“It’s worse at the moment because we’ve had a really long drought and then a lot of rain,” she said.
“That means the roots on the trees are shallow and the heavy rain loosens all the dirt around the trees and then you get strong winds and they just fall over.”
The second tree fell over in a front yard and the third fell across a driveway.
Weatherzone meteorologist Max Gonzalez said the worst of the wild weather was over for the foreseeable future but the weekend was expected to be freezing.
“There’s a very strong cold front coming through just in time for the weekend where it should drop down to minus one,” he said.
Winds on Tuesday night and yesterday morning reached gusts of up to 70km/h and were strongest at around 5am.
During the day on Wednesday from lunchtime through to 7pm, winds were about 30 to 40km/h, Mr Gonzalez said.
Thursday and Friday should be clear with a chance of a “shower or two”.
Ms Watson said she hoped the community would use the time to prepare their homes for the chance of more storms in the future.
She said it was important people cleared gutters so water did not build up and run into the home, trim trees to prevent limbs falling through roofs and secure outdoor furniture so winds would not pick the objects up and throw them through windows.
“Make sure trampolines are upside down. Even when you think they’re pegged in properly, a strong wind can still come along and pick them up,” she said.
nicole.kuter@fairfaxmedia.com.au