SEVERE WINDS and heavy rainfall yesterday evening resulted in several towns in and around the Coonamble shire suffering extensive damage to their property and several hours without power.

The rainfall on Wednesday 8 December was scattered but widespread, the majority of which occurred between 5pm and 8.30pm.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology Coonamble recorded around 30.6mm while Gilgandra saw 32.8mm. The storm was part of a large weather system covering a large part of the state.

The village of Quambone, 61 kilometres west of Coonamble, was one of the first to see the storm, however only recorded about 12mm of rain along with some hail and mild winds.

"The hail didn't last too long, it would have rolled in about 3.40pm and only lasted probably five minutes - the rain was then pretty heavy for another 40 minutes," Quambone resident Cindy Delaney said.

The Quambone township didn't see as much rainfall as the towns further east, but still saw a brief shower of hail earlier in the afternoon. Photo courtesy of Cindy Delaney

There were a number of jobs for the Coonamble SES, with Chief Inspector John Lewis saying the vast majority dealt with damages to fallen trees and damaged roofs.

"Fortunately, we didn’t have to do any rescues - it was more the strong winds and ferocity of the storm which caused problems rather than the amount of rain," Mr Lewis said.

"Of course, we are now looking at the water ways because everything will make its way back to the river. Based on the amount of rain, I don't think it will cause dramas like it did a week ago, but there will definitely be a rise.

"Speaking to the BOM, they're saying this type of thing is what we've got to look forward to for the rest of December, so people should be aware that if they have any further issues related to storms, they should ring the SES, that's what we're there for."

• Tree branches fell on the roof of these flats in Eurimie Street Coonamble. PHOTOS Emandeep Singh

According to Unit Commander with the Gilgandra SES Geoff Kiehn, despite Gilgandra's extensive rainfall, there were no major winds, meaning the impact to the township, aside from water damage to roads, was minimal.

Adding to local frustration was a blackout which began last night at around 5pm, supposedly leaving more than 2800 homes across Coonamble and Gilgandra shires without power.

The issue was later traced to a power pole on the transmission line about 8km south of Coonamble.

The local Essential Energy crew worked for several hours in adverse conditions to bring power back to Coonamble shortly before midnight. Despite this, Ms Delaney said the power was yet to return to Quambone as of 9am on Thursday morning.

A spokesperson for Essential Energy said that 2,881 customers were affected from around 5pm.

"Crews attended quickly and were able to isolate a section of the network before restoring power to 631 customers at 8.04pm,"said Essential Energy's Bronya Pressler.

"The cause of the unplanned outage was found to be a power pole which was snapped off at the base between Gulargambone and Coonamble, due to the ferocity of the storms which lashed the area yesterday afternoon.

"An excavator needed to be brought in to help deliver heavy equipment to the site to dig a new hole and stand the pole last night. After working in treacherous conditions, repairs were completed and power was restored to all but 251 customers at 10.51pm," Ms Pressler said.

A patrol of the electricity network identified a further problem where high voltage powerlines had been brought down on Carinda Road.

"Crews have been working as quickly and safely as possible to complete repairs and power is expected to be restored to all remaining customers later this morning," said Ms Pressler.

At the height of the storms yesterday, more than 7,600 customers were without power due to the storms, including around 1,500 in the Gunnedah area and 1,200 in the Boggabri area.

*Lightning and high winds created problems with power lines across a wide area on the evening of Wednesday 8 December. PHOTO courtesy Lisa Kenny.

Fire and Rescue NSW's Coonamble team had a fairly quiet night, with the only job attended being a small electrical fire at the Coonamble Bowling Club.

It was initially believed the fire had begun by a lightning strike to the club or the nearby power pole.

However, it has since been revealed by Bowling Club Manager Tessa Pennell the issue was caused by the strong winds.

"What we've discovered this morning is that the main power lines out the front of the Club were actually blown into the light poles in our carpark," Mrs Pennell said.

"That then burnt a hole in the wiring which then went back to the club's switchboard which caused all the smoke and commotion. It was pretty lucky the whole town didn't go out."

The Bowling Club normally has a backup power generator when blackouts occur, however Mrs Pennell said issues with the generator the night before had led to her switching it off leaving them also in the dark on Wednesday night.

"I was going to have people come and take a look at it this morning, so it was just bad timing," Mrs Pennell said.

"I think it would have cost us quite a lot of business, but I especially feel sorry for the local Clontarf guys who had spent the day setting up for their end of year presentation night in our function room and then had to call it off at the last minute."

The full extent of damages to roads and infrastructure across the shire caused by the storm is still being assessed.