Canberra has been battered by winds of nearly 100 kilometres per hour, causing power outages and bringing down dozens of large trees across the territory.

The State Emergency Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning just after 6:00pm on Tuesday, after recording wind gusts of up to 96kph.

Power went out in several suburbs across the city, including Downer, Dickson, Ainslie, Kambah, Watson, and Waramanga.

Lightning strikes down near one of Canberra's main thoroughfares. ( Supplied: @GlennMarPhotos )

On Wednesday morning 115 customers remained without electricity as ActewAGL worked to restore power in parts of Macquarie, Kambah, O'Connor and Aranda.

Dozens of large trees fell at Aranda Oval near Aranda Primary School, with one witness saying up to 30 trees came down in the short but violent storm.

A fallen tree on Northbourne Avenue held up peak-hour traffic. ( ABC News: Tegan Osborne )

Aranda resident Corinna Dalton was waiting for her husband to come home from work when the storm swept through.

"It was like a tornado, it literally just came across the ovals here," she said.

"It took the trees and sort of bent them backwards and then just sort of uprooted every single tree all in one go."

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Fallen trees were also causing major traffic delays on Northbourne Avenue and Antill Street.

The ACTSES has received more than 130 calls for help.

Most of the jobs were located in Canberra's north with a high number of call-outs in Belconnen.

Crews will finish clearing fallen trees and other debris this morning.

