By Rachael Ward in Melbourne

People in three states have been put on alert over wild storms with the potential to bring down trees and power lines, triggering outages.

Severe thunderstorms are expected to hit much of south-eastern Australia on Sunday, extending from western NSW to the east of SA and much of northern Victoria.

Adelaide, inland Victoria including Melbourne and parts of NSW’s southern Riverina are in the firing line for severe thunderstorms that could bring damaging wind gusts and large hail stones, Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said.

“We may even see destructive wind gusts as these storms move through, with the potential to bring down trees, branches, power lines, potentially leading to power outages as well as road and access issues as debris falls on the roads,” she said.

“We may also see damage to properties as trees and hailstones move through with those storms.”

Conditions are expected to peak on Sunday afternoon and evening before easing on Monday.

A severe weather warning for damaging winds remains in place for parts of eastern NSW including Braidwood, Katoomba, Goulburn, Charlotte Pass, Thredbo and Adaminaby for the rest of Saturday.

Ms Bradbury said the winds may be strong enough to bring down trees or branches across roads, potentially leading to dangerous driving conditions.

“If you are travelling into those more elevated parts of the state be aware of this wind risk,” she said.