Thousands of Tasmanian customers are without power and Saturday's Salamanca Market is cancelled as wild weather continues — and the Bureau of Meteorology says the worst is yet to come.
The BOM said a cold front was expected to approach Tasmania on Friday, with two further cold fronts bringing further damaging winds on Saturday and Sunday.
The forecast winds meant Salamanca Market organisers cancelled the popular Saturday outdoor market.
"Safety is our number one priority and that of our stallholders, our crew and all of the people who visit us each week," organisers said in a social media post.
"We will be back again the following Saturday with bells on."
As of 4:40pm on Friday more than 3,500 properties were without power in Tasmania, mostly concentrated in the state's north and north-west.
Businesses in Campbell Town, a popular stop on the Midland Highway, were among those without power on Friday afternoon.
On Saturday morning, TasNetworks said there were almost 15,000 customers without power.
Speaking on ABC Mornings, a TasNetworks spokesperson said affected customers should brace for lengthy repair times.
"We are asking our customers to prepare for long delays," they said.
"In these instances, the winds can cause havoc across the networks and infrastructure with trees going down through powerlines."
They said the weather was impacting repair times.
"With lengthy delays, obviously it is due to the weather but it can also be due to access issues," they said.
"If there's trees down in those rural areas it can be hard for our teams to get there.
"It's throwing everything at us at the moment but I can assure our customers that our crews are working as hard as they can to restore supply as quickly as possible."
Driver in hospital after car hits fallen tree
Tasmania Police have urged drivers to stay vigilant, as a large number of trees have fallen over roads across the state.
The driver of a vehicle in Oldina in the state's north-west was taken to hospital with serious injuries after their car crashed into a fallen tree over Oldina Road this morning.
"In the last 24 hours we've responded to over 20 crashes," Tasmania Police southern district commander Jason Elmer said on Friday afternoon.
"We've also responded to in excess of 35 incidents of trees and other debris across roadways.
"If people don't need to be out in these conditions, then we'd urge them not to."
The State Emergency Service (SES) has responded to 80 requests for assistance over the past three days.
SES acting director Cheryl Ames told ABC Radio Hobart the calls were mostly for roofing-related issues and downed powerlines.
"It's just a timely reminder that please do not go near powerlines … and if there's an issue, report it to TasNetworks immediately," she said.
Ms Ames said there were "quite a few reports of trees down impacting properties," as well as "storm damage and a bit of inundation through blocked guttering".
"We've had a couple of instances where houses have lost partial parts of their roofs and tin coming off."
From the six hours to 5am on Friday, wind gusts more than 100 kilometres per hour were recorded across the state, with the strongest 128 kph at kunanyi/Mount Wellington.
BOM warns windiest weather, flooding still to come
The Bureau of Meteorology's Matthew Thomas told ABC Radio Hobart the windiest weather was yet to come.
"I don't think we are quite out of the woods yet," he said.
Two more cold fronts are set to cross the state on Saturday and Sunday, the bureau said.
"The wind is going to continue on Saturday and, just to put that into context, we have gale warnings for coastal waters today," Mr Thomas said.
"For [Saturday], we have storm-force warnings for southern and western coastal waters. That's 48 knots and above, and that means wind speeds of about 90 km/h."
In the 24 hours since 9am Thursday, there was 15.8mm of rain recorded in Hobart, 25mm of rain in Sheffield and 16mm of rain in both Launceston and Wynyard.
The SES told ABC Radio Hobart it was closely monitoring flood catchments.
Ms Ames said the SES was preparing for more calls, particularly in relation to flooding.
"Given the forecast for continuing damaging winds and heavy rainfall, we are very closely monitoring the river catchments," she said.
SES executive director Mick Lowe said a team of hydrologists was continuously assessing the flood situation.
Flood warnings are in place for several rivers.
The Bureau of Meteorology's Luke Johnston said there was potential for minor flood warnings to be upgraded to moderate flood warnings into the weekend.
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More snow over the weekend
The mountain overlooking Hobart was a pretty sight as snow, falling since Wednesday, continued to blanket kunanyi/Mount Wellington in what is an unusual cold weather burst.
yingina/Great Lake in central Tasmania also received snow, and more is predicted.
On Saturday, snow is expected to fall to 600 metres in the state's south during the morning, with snow falling to 800 metres on Sunday.
Mount Mawson Ski Field in the Mount Field National Park in southern Tasmania is hoping to open this weekend for the first time in two years.
Volunteers who run the ski field were conducting checks on Friday to see if there was enough snow to open the tows.
Ben Lomond also received a snowy surprise, as the season for skiing usually wraps up by the end of August.
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