Tornado tears through West Australian town ripping off roofs

A tornado has ripped through Harvey in WA's south-west overnight, damaging a number of homes and uprooting trees.

There have been reports of five roofs lost in destructive wind gusts, which reached about 120 km/hour at 6.30pm on Thursday.

Harvey resident Dominic Fazzolari said he was watching TV when he heard a loud bang.

"It was like an aeroplane taking off," he said.

His roof ended up entwined in a tree nearly 50 metres from the property.

"The roof was gone, it was pelting down with rain at the time, really windy… but the whole thing only lasted 10 seconds," he told 9News.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the suspected tornado would have formed as a cold front moved through the Harvey area.

"We're going to see winds well in excess of 100 km/h for that short period that the tornado is around," Craig Earl-Spurr said.

"Typically, with tornadoes you will see a sudden increase in the wind, and it will leave just as quickly as it arrived," he said.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services said they received five reports of property damage and numerous call outs for tree damage.

No one was injured but the clean-up is expected to take some time. The south west of WA has an average of five tornadoes per year during the cooler months.