With a top temperature of 13.8 degrees, and a “real feel” that struggled to make it into double figures, winter arrived in the Shoalhaven with a vengeance.

From midday, winds in the Nowra area peaked between 70km/h and 91km/h at its height at 4.30pm.

There were reports of a number of trees brought down by the gale force winds, including one on a house at Foxground.

One of the biggest dangers was  flying trampolines.

Among the 55 calls for assistance the Nowra SES received up until 5pm Tuesday, five were to reports of flying trampolines.

One landed on the roof of Ekidna Kinda in Yalwal Road, West Nowra.

Two teams of SES volunteers removed the large trampoline which had blown from a neighbouring property.

Although Nowra SES headquarters was a hive of activity and two crews worked all day on callouts, media liaison officer Jacqui Gilmore said considering the wild conditions, the crews didn’t experience any “major jobs”.

“We had calls from Nowra, North Nowra, Bomaderry, Sanctuary Point and St Georges Basin,” she said.

“We had reports of a number of trees down but no major damage.”

With strong winds predicted to continue until Wednesday morning SES crews were expecting a busy night.

Endeavour Energy reported power outages to various areas throughout Tuesday, starting further south in Ulladulla, Milton and Sussex Inlet before gradually heading north as the wind ripped up the coast.

At 5.30pm Tuesday, 973 homes at Sussex Inlet, 646 homes at North Nowra, 500 homes at Shoalhaven Heads, 483 homes at Bangalee, 440 homes in Bomaderry, 264 homes in Nowra, 150 homes in Jaspers Brush and 127 homes at Tapitallee were without power.

Endeavour Energy regional development manager, South Coast, Janine Cullen said Bomaderry was one of the hardest hit areas.

“We had homes consistently without power for most of the day in the Bomaderry area,” she said.

“It was a crazy day, in many cases no sooner had we restored power to some areas and others would report outages.

“From 7am we had between 2000 and 5000 outages in the Shoalhaven and Southern Highlands areas. 

“We thank people for their patience as crews worked to restore power as safely and as quickly as possible.”

Police were kept busy with numerous reports of downed power lines, while at 5pm busy traffic as workers were heading home was thrown into chaos when a power outage blacked out traffic lights at the intersections of Bridge Road and North Street and Bridge Road and the Princes Highway in Nowra.

MISSILE: SES volunteers remove a trampoline blown on to the roof of Ekidna Kinda at West Nowra.