South Australia has been lashed by heavy rain, wild wind and thunderstorms, causing widespread power outages.
There are currently 85 power outages across the state, affecting more than 27,000 homes and businesses.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) there have been about 143,000 lightning strikes over SA in the past 24 hours.
Wind gusts up to 106kph were recorded at Adelaide Airport just before 4pm on Saturday.
Strong winds were also recorded in Adelaide's south, with gusts up to 96kph at Sellicks Hill, and 91kph at Kuitpo and Noarlunga.
The wild weather suspended the AFLW Adelaide Collingwood semifinal twice. The first bout of bad weather saw the start of the match delayed due to concerns about lightning strikes.
BOM senior forecaster Simon Timcke said the thunderstorms were expected to continue into Sunday.
"There's still quite a bit of thunderstorm activity showing up on the radar, but a general eastward movement of the system during Sunday," he said.
"I think the more severe thunderstorms [will be] most likely confined to our eastern districts and the eastern states during Sunday, but still a chance of some further showers and isolated thunderstorms further west as well."
Mr Timcke said spring was usually the time of year when SA experienced its most active thunderstorms.
"In South Australia … we did have a bit of a slow start this spring with the cooler, damper conditions earlier, but as things have warmed up we have seen more frequent thunderstorms," he said.
The heaviest rainfall was recorded at Port Lincoln, which received more than 55 millimetres on Saturday.
Adelaide Christmas Pageant returns
The rain, thunder and lightning couldn't stop this year's Adelaide Christmas Pageant from making its stellar return to the city streets.
Thousands of people gathered along the parade route on Saturday morning to watch floats, clowns and entertainment as the pageant made its way through the city.
Crowds of people donned ponchos and found cover where they could as the rain became heavier in the lead-up to the highly anticipated Father Christmas float arriving.
The pageant — which has become the largest public parade in the southern hemisphere — returned to its traditional format this year after two years affected by pandemic restrictions.
Flooding at Port Lincoln
Meanwhile, downpours were much heavier on Eyre Peninsula, with localised flooding reported in Port Lincoln.
Port Lincoln business owner Fiona Rosalia said she had to rush to sandbag around her store.
"I had no warning for this one, none at all," she said.
"We are normally pretty prepared but we have been renovating the store, so we normally have the back of our store sandbagged but we had to pull all of those out.
"It's certainly not as bad as it was a couple of years ago, which was absolutely extreme, but it's enough to do damage if you're not prepared."
Mr Timcke said Port Lincoln had recorded 37mm of rain before midday.
"Port Lincoln has had some fairly frequent showers and thunderstorms move across during the later part of the morning so they have been quite a bit wetter there," he said.
"Further east, we have had quite a bit of shower and thunderstorm activity move across Eyre Peninsula, the Adelaide and the Mount Lofty Ranges area, mid north and the Riverland, Kangaroo Island as well."
Damage to crops in the region
Port Lincoln farmer Mark Modra said hail stones two to three centimetres in diameter had caused damage to crops in the region.
"Any crop that is standing … hail damages it this time of year — wheat, barley, any crop," he said.
"That is really something we don't want to see."
He said he was expecting a great season but he feared grain quality would now be downgraded.
"If the rain doesn't ease up, we are going to have trouble getting onto our paddocks because it will just be too wet, it will be boggy," Mr Modra said.
"Perhaps not as bad as the eastern states but certainly towards those sorts of conditions and certainly our grain quality will be affected."
The bureau issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Eyre Peninsula and parts of West Coast, Flinders, North East Pastoral, Riverland and North West Pastoral districts.
There is also a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of the Onkaparinga, Western Alexandrina and Mount Barker council areas, south of Adelaide.
The warning said severe thunderstorms were detected on the weather radar near Noarlunga and Hackham, and they were expected to affect Christies Beach and Port Noarlunga this afternoon.
