'Tornado' reported near Hokitika - Apr 29

[Dale]

Hoki brigade has again been dispatched this time to a reported tornado.. with trees thrown onto powerlines and livestock "relocated".. to where is anyones guess! Some sort of cattle station or farm in the district, don't know where exactly but if I hear anymore from the guys, will update it further.

[NZstorm]

I see the media reporting a mini tornado at 8.40pm. Will be interesting to see the 8 and 9pm metars from Hokitika for wind direction/speed.

[Weather Watcher]

I'm not sure the time of 8:40pm for a tornado is correct. Radar showed a line of squally thunderstorms moving through that area between 7pm and 7:30pm, and some quite big isolated storms up around Greymouth between 6:30pm and 7:30pm. I think if there is a tornado it's more likely with the storms near Greymouth. Squalls are more likely near Hokitika.

[Dale]

Firecom called Hoki out to a reported tornado an hour ago.. they are back at base now after confirming damage to powerlines, nothing more for them to do once the powerco got on site. Nothing further about it at this stage as to whether it was a "tornado" or merely a squall.

[Nev]

Media reports...

'Rough weather moves in; report of a West Coast tornado' - WeatherWatch

'Wild weather hits country' - Manawatu Standard (Stuff)

'Mini tornedo on West Coast' - NZ Herald

[Nev]

Thought it might be an idea give these apparent 'tornado' reports a separate thread.


Still not entirely convinced, but here's a couple more variations of the same reports...

'Tornado cuts power' - NewstalkZB

'Mini tornado hits Hokitika' - TVNZ

[Nev]

Here's an eyewitness account from the guy who lost his roof at Three Mile, just north of Hokitika. He reckons it was about 7:15pm...

'Roof torn from house during storm' - Stuff

[NZstorm]

The environment along and ahead of the front liked like it would be supportive of a tornado. You could tick all the boxes for a tornado to occur. So from a met point of view the tornado possibility looked good, provided it occurred ahead of the frontal boundary.

[Nev]

7:15pm radar image ('+' roughly marks Three Mile, Hokitika)...

[Dale]

The front page of the Greymouth Star this afternoon carries the story of the gentleman who had the trees thrown around.. I am still in 2 minds, there is just so much conflict over the time. Also, it says that Greymouth had absolutely no warning whatsoever of last night happening. What utter rot! It had been picked out days before hand & certain portions of the media were running it.. including myself, I was prepared for last night. Sorry you cant be contacted in person to say you are going to sustain X damage at X time.

[NZstorm]

It would be easier to call it a tornado if there was a trail of damage. The radar points more to an outflowy squally type of precip.

[Nev]

Northerly gusts at Hokitika Aero seem to have peaked at 63 km/h for an hour or two prior to 6pm. They appear to have turned westerly rather abruptly during the hour to 8pm, with gusts to 57 km/h. However, W to WSW gusts picked up again, peaking at 74 km/h in the hour to 10pm, and remained relatively strong for the next several hours. Three Mile is apparently only about 3 km N of Hokitika.

Similarly, Greymouth Aero shows N/NNW gusts peaking at 72 km/h in the hour to 8pm, and WSW gusts peaking again at 76 km/h in the hour to 5am the following morning.