Bureau of Meteorology forecaster David James said the weak tornado, photographed at 9.55am, was the first of three sighted over two hours yesterday.

"On average I'd say Tasmania gets a tornado once every year, but we usually get them in the North, so it's actually quite rare to have seen some in Hobart," he said.

"There was a possible one out near New Norfolk in 2002 ... and there was a definite one in 1971 which unroofed three Hobart houses.

"The last one in Tasmania came out of Port Sorell in April."

Mr James said that while it wasn't known why tornadoes were more common in the North, yesterday's conditions were perfect for the three in Hobart.

"It was an unstable air mass where the air rose, little fluffy clouds quickly turned to thunderclouds and there was enough air sheer (a change in wind speed and direction with height) to cause the air as it was rising to spin and cause a tornado," he said.

Mr James said the tornadoes were not known to have caused any damage.

As of 5pm yesterday, Mr James said there were also thunderstorms through the South and South-East and near the North of the state.

"The highest rainfall was 26 millimetres at Buckland and Tunnack, the East Coast had 10-15mm in areas further down south ... Launceston city had 3.2mm of rain, Wynyard had 5mm and Sheffield had 7mm," he said.

"There was pea-sized hail in the South ... the most was in Kingston and a fair bit in Rokeby - the roads were a few centimetres deep in coverage.

"The State Emergency Service had a couple of issues with hail blocking roof gutters and causing roofs to leak."

Mr James said that while there had been some smaller hail in the North, there hadn't been any known incidents of damage.

According to the SES website, the service received several calls for assistance due to flash flooding of properties yesterday.

Mr James said the weather would be clear through most of the state today, except for some isolated showers in the West and far South.