Andrew Treloar, the bureau’s manager of weather services NSW, examined the pattern and extent of the damage with manager of severe weather services Michael Logan today.

Mr Treloar said it couldn’t be attributed to lesser weather phenomena like a waterspout or a microburst - though these may have also occurred as part of wider extreme weather event in the region early Sunday morning. 

‘‘There’s some very, very strong general wind occurring on the night and that’s lead to some significant damage around town. There’s also that very [defined] path of damage we believe would have been caused by some small tornadoes.’’ Mr Treloar said.

‘‘From reports from Jamberoo it looks like a small event has gone through there as well.’’

Mr Treloar said the Kiama activity was likely a category F1 on the six-tiered Fujita Scale of tornado intensity, with F0 being the least intense and F5 being the most destructive.

The bureau has yet to finalise the rating.