South Australia Weather: Storms, Wind Warnings, and High Tides Expected

Wet and wild weather is lashing parts of South Australia with the Bureau of Meteorology warning about wind risk during storms.

Bureau meteorologist Robert Urbaniak said 50,000 lightning strikes were recorded in the 12 hours to 9:30am today, with about 12,000 that struck the ground.

He said most of the strikes hit North East Pastoral and Adelaide.

Transport Minister Joe Szakacs said the lightning had delayed the start of the tunnelling of the Torrens to Darlington project set to begin today.

Bureau senior forecaster Tom Anderson told 891 ABC Adelaide some areas had already received 10 to 15 millimetres in the 12 hours to 6am on Wednesday.

Gammon Ranges in the northern Flinders Ranges recorded 52.2mm in the two hours to 7:39am.

"We had those storms come through the city about 2 or 3am this morning, plus we got some storms going off just either side of the Spencer Gulf and further north in the North East Pastoral," Mr Anderson said.

"We're expecting pretty broad brush 5 to 10mm for much of the agricultural areas of the state, maybe missing out a little bit in the Far West."

Mr Anderson said pastoral areas were likely to receive more rain than other locations across the day.

"We're expecting these storms to be more of a wind risk than a heavy rainfall risk because there may only be seeing up to 20mm today, not just pouring cats and dogs all day but they are probably going to get more rainfall than we have," he said.

He said a gale warning had been issued for the Central Coast and the Upper and Lower West Coast, while elsewhere around the state was under a strong wind warning.

Thunderstorms have eased for parts of the North East Pastoral, but Mr Urbaniak said storms with damaging winds were likely to develop this afternoon in the same area, along with the Riverland, Murraylands and areas south of Hawker.

A warning for damaging winds has been issued for Kangaroo Island, parts of Mount Lofty Ranges, Lower Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula and Lower South East districts on Thursday and early Friday.

Colder mornings ahead

Mr Anderson said morning temperatures were warmer than expected for this time of year but that would change from Thursday.

"We'll get into a westerly wind flow and we'll see temperatures drop back to very low teens for much of the South East and coastal areas in the state," he said.

He said high tides were expected on Friday and Saturday but the bureau was yet to issue a warning.

Marine Safety SA has posted to social media alerting the public that tide levels along SA's coast are forecast to be significantly higher than indicated today and tomorrow.

It asks people exercise caution when entering jetties at Thevenard, Fleurieu Peninsula, Lower Eyre Peninsula, South East and metropolitan Adelaide.

"Abnormally high tides may result in jetties being overtopped by waves," it said.