A police spokesman said the motorcyclist swerved and fell off his bike after a tree fell on the road in front of him. 

The rider, who had minor injuries, was lucky to escape without serious harm.

The incident occurred near the corner of Erin and Collett Streets.

Roads were closed and power was cut in other parts of Queanbeyan, including Cooma Street.

The Queanbeyan State Emergency Service had 57 calls by about 5pm spokesman Brent Hunter said.

He said there were a number of serious incidents across the city, including trees down throughout parks and play areas. 

The unit had been activated and were working with the Rural Fire Service and Queanbeyan council to manage the situation.

The SES volunteers worked until midnight on Friday and by Saturday afternoon Mr Hunter said he was confident they would have completed the clean up work by the end of the day.

The temperature dropped sharply before the short storm hit, catching the whole region off guard.

"It was completely out of the blue,” Mr Hunter said. “Some of our volunteers are fire-fighters and they were in fire trucks waiting to fight fires and all of a sudden they got kicked off those trucks and sent down to the SES.”

Unplanned power outages affected about 1500 homes across Jerrabomberra and Hoskinstown. Most had their power restored by the evening with the remaining homes all having their supply connected on Saturday.

The region received no official warning the freak weather event was on the horizon, and residents were unprepared for the strong winds which left a trail of damage.

Temperatures were as high as 39.6 degrees and the Bureau of Meteorology had not previously issued an extreme weather warning.

“Forecasters assessed that any damage would be confined to higher elevations and this was reflected in warnings issued," a bureau spokesperson told Fairfax Media.