Gale force winds ripped through the ACT yesterday, bringing down tress across the city.

Motorists on Northbourne Avenue had a scare when a tree fell across three lanes of the busy road about 3pm.  Emergency services said traffic was blocked for about 20 minutes as a fire crew worked to clear the tree.  No one was injured.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for the ACT as powerful gusts swept the city and its surrounding peaks.  According to the Bureau, the worst of the weather came through Canberra in the mid-afternoon, the airport recording winds of up to 81km/h.

The Territory's emergency services remained on standby through the day to deal with incidents caused by strong wind.

At Parliament House, the forceful gusts also appeared to get the better of the national flag, which was frayed on its pole.

A Bureau spokesman said the windy conditions would continue today and into Sunday, but were not expected to reach the speeds of yesterday.  "It's certainly going to be windy ... although it's an easing trend expected." he said.

The sun brought some consolation to Canberrans braving the wind, producing temperatures of 16 degrees, nearly 4 degrees warmer than average, according to the Bureau.  The spokesman said the windy August weather was not a sign of a retreating El Nino weather pattern.  He said data showed the nation was neither in the grip of El Nino nor of La Nina.  "It's neither breaking nor arriving.  It's close to normal weather conditions," he said.

 Winds here in Gungahlin gusted to 66.0km/h at 2.40pm, with the average over the 24hrs (from midnight Thursday to midnight Friday) a fresh 19.5km/h.  Although there were no reports of wind damage across Gungahlin, there was plenty of tree debris lying across the roads.

Weather conditions at Gungahlin during a very windy August 10, 2007: