That’s Orange for you, beautiful one day… well, not-so-beautiful the next!

A major rainfall incident with winds of more than 100 km/h — rated on the universal Beaufort Scale as a “Violent Storm causing Extensive Widespread Damage” — tore through the Colour City last Wednesday, bringing down trees and damaging vehicles.

The brief-though-violent tempest also played havoc on the roads with trees later seen blocking many thoroughfares.

The most serious impact was on a man in his twenties who suffered multiple injuries when a tree fell on his car during the height of the storm that hit Orange just before midday; in which wind gusts touching 110 km/h were recorded.

The storm cell was part of a damaging front that travelled in an easterly direction from western NSW before causing major problems in population centres including Sydney and in the Hunter, a spokesperson for our major volunteer rescue group revealed.

“The NSW SES has responded to more than 2300 jobs across NSW since about midday, Wednesday, after severe thunderstorms started in the Central West, and moved east into Sydney, the Hunter and Mid North Coast region,” NSW SES Western Zone Deputy Commander, Superintendent Josh Clark said.

“Of the thousands of jobs statewide, 220 were tasked to the Orange SES Unit, another 84 were tasked to the Bathurst unit, Mudgee volunteers responded to 18 jobs, and Dubbo SES responded to 48 incidents,” he added.

Power was also lost to thousands of local homes with some taking more than two days to have their electricity services restored, but that was only part of the damage, Supt Clark explained.

“The majority of the damage in and around Orange was caused by significant wind brought by the thunderstorm which was short-lived but intense.

“NSW SES crews responded to jobs for trees down on roads, properties and vehicles, leaking roofs, damaged roofs, and leaking skylights.”

SES and utility provider tape still covered foliage down on footpaths around east Orange late on Friday, indicating that there was still much to do.

“NSW SES crews in the region have worked tirelessly over the last few days to clean up after the storm and respond to a large number of jobs in the area,” Supt Clark said.

“About 50 jobs remain outstanding across the Central West, many of them involving powerlines and large trees,” he added.

Other parts of the west to be battered included Nevertire, west of Dubbo, where at least six roofs were completely blown off due to major winds.

With 1145 total incidents statewide, Sydney led the list with 622 reports, followed by the Western Zone with more than 270.