No, it's not the Mid-West of the United States, let alone Kansas.
This tornado was photographed yesterday by Tathra couple Heather and Neil Leckie on the highway between Nimmitabel and Cooma, as the region was hit by series of heavy and violent storms.
On their way to Canberra at the time, Mrs Leckie, an artist, said she looked out of the car window, and said, ''Gosh, look at that.''
''I've never seen anything like that in my life before,'' she said.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, it is extremely rare to capture such a good image of a local tornado, even though up to 100 of them happen in NSW every year. Mostly they pass unnoticed through the region's sparsely populated bush, causing little or no damage.
It is not known if Tornado Leckie wrecked havoc around Nimmitabel, but the bureau likes Mrs Leckie's picture so much they want to put it on the cover of December's Monthly Weather Review. Severe weather forecaster Michael Logan said tornadoes in Australia lacked the intensity of American ones because of differences in atmosphere.
While there were often a fair few in NSW, a tornado in Canberra would be improbable, but not impossible.
Weather conditions needed for one to form included severe thunderstorms, a cloud base low to the ground and strong winds in the upper atmosphere. The bureau issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of the Southern Tablelands, including the region where the photo was taken, and Canberra. Rain whipped the territory late in the evening, with Emergency Services on stand-by. Canberrans were told to expect large hailstones, very heavy rainfall, flash flooding and damaging winds.
A region south of Cooma received 36mm of rain in 30 minutes.
The NSW State Emergency Service reported that, despite the wet and wild weather, it had received just nine calls for help statewide.
Canberra got 18.4mm of rain yesterday, bringing the total for the month so far to 85mm, 32.5mm more than the historical average of 52.5. Canberra's dams were 52 per cent full as of yesterday. Today is expected to be fine and partly cloudy with a top of 25 ahead of a warmer Christmas Day and Boxing Day.