Tornado in Dargaville???

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03Stormchaser
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Tornado in Dargaville???

Unread post by 03Stormchaser »

Found this article on stuff.co.nz,
Possible tornado?? or just extremly strong winds.

Trees, cars and sheds "a tumbling down" as big winds strike town
02 December 2004
By VIV TROUNSON

Last Friday's storm, which may have produced winds of more that 100kph, brought down trees and disintegrated a garage workshop in Dargaville.
A multi-trunked macrocarpa at Aoroa split in three with one landing on a stock car and another on a truck.
Beryl Going was in her lounge with her children, Alesha White (2) and two month old baby Courtney when the first trunk crashed at about 10am.

"I saw it falling towards the window where the children were and thought it was coming through."

"All I could think about was my children. I grabbed Alesha off the chair and dragged the bouncer, with Courtney in it, along the floor."

Fortunately the tree fell feet short but Beryl's partner, Bevin White's stock car was in its path. However, its robust construction meant it suffered little damage. Similarly, an old truck Mr White is restoring also escaped major damage when a second tree trunk fell across its cab that afternoon.

Beryl Going was standing in the drive at the time and saw it fall.

"Now I wonder which way the last one is going to fall," she said, adding that Alesha was shaken by the experience.

Pirika St resident Graham James received a call from a neighbour at about 3pm, telling him to look outsideHe found his workshop disintegrated and the roof blown off an adjoining carport housing a caravan.

One workshop wall was leaning on the caravan, the other had blown out in the opposite direction. Roof material travelled 70 m into a paddock and items from inside the shed were strewn some distance.

Mr James believes a mini tornado blew in the roller door and then exploded the shed outwards. Two large macrocarpa were uprooted below Pirika St.

Power was briefly cut to parts of Dargaville at the same time. McBreen Jenkins reported a number of trees on roads, including six on Pouto Rd at Aoroa which disrupted traffic for about 30 minutes. Others either did not close roads or were quickly cleared.

Dargaville Fire Brigade had two call-outs from the storm, one to a pile of logs at Parore that ignited from blowing embers from another fire. They were also called to clear debris off SH12 near Ruawai.

Kaipara's emergency support officer Jim Goodland had received other reports of trees down around Kaipara. He said it was the strongest blow this year and that the west coast had felt the brunt of it.

Monitoring equipment recorded a sustained wind speed of 57kph over 15 minutes but Mr Goodland believed individual gusts "would have reached at least 100kph."

"It's remarkable that there wasn't a lot more damage. I would have expected a lot of road incidents."


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Michael
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Re: Tornado in Dargaville???

Unread post by Michael »

Dargiville is very exposed to the SW like we are .The trees there have permnament leanings from that direction.I guess like the ones on the South coast near Invercargill ;)
03 Stormchaser wrote:Found this article on stuff.co.nz,
Possible tornado?? or just extremly strong winds

Your thoughts :)
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