Dust-devil(s) in Cromwell - Jan 11

[einzack]

"Mini Tornadoes in Central Otago"
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8833056 ... 500-metres

[Thunder081]

"Mini Tornadoes in Central Otago"
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8833056 ... 500-metres

Looks like a big dust devil

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Useless STUFF and their reporting. I know of people who have withdrawn their subscriptions to The Press and The Dominion Post for their '20 years old' journalism

[Nev]

Looks like a a dust-devil around 3pm, when temps were around 28C according to this Cromwell PWS, but the more severe damage was reported around 5:30pm accompanied by some light rain, so wouldn't rule out a tornado?

'Mini-tornadoes tear through Cromwell' - ODT
'Video: Cromwell residents forced inside as dust devil hits' - TVNZ

[spwill]

Dust devils there.

[Thunder081]

Useless STUFF and their reporting. I know of people who have withdrawn their subscriptions to The Press and The Dominion Post for their '20 year old journalism'

Useless or they call them mini tornadoes for the clickbait..

[Nev]

This is the Police News Release that probably first alerted the media…

'Police urge caution as Cromwell weather causes damage' - NZ Police

[Manukau heads obs]

the late afternoon winds most likely just due to strong gusty NW winds , ahead of an approaching front

[03Stormchaser]

Media didnt like me calling them out on the use of the mini tornado term lol Threatended to shut down my facebook page

I've been told though that police reports are deemed usable by media as fact. So if the police are using the incorrect meteorological terms the media will

[Manukau heads obs]

the media need to actually seek some advice from people in the know on things instead of using copy/paste of a news article, I would have thought

[03Stormchaser]

the media need to actually seek some advice from people in the know on things instead of using copy/paste of a news article, I would have thought

I mentioned that to Chris Lynch on his Facebook page and he didn't take to lightly to that lol

[Nev]

TVNZ also initially copied and pasted that police media release before adding Dan Corbett's comments. Certainly one of the most powerful NZ dust-devils I've seen in their latest video addition (see link above).

[Manukau heads obs]

that video from the 2 story house of the dust devil certainly shows it was a real vicious one alright

[Nev]

Despite this comment from MS, Stuff are still calling them 'mini-tornadoes'…

'Warm and windy again in north and east, gales in Wellington, wet in west and south'

MetService meteorologist Tom Adams said Cromwell was hit by unusually large dust devils.

Conditions needed to create them were sunshine to heat the ground and wind shear - when the wind is slightly stronger in one place than another.

It was windy at the time and with the mountains around Cromwell it was easy to get a lot of wind shear, Adams said.

"It had one of those set-ups conducive to large dust devils."

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Despite this comment from MS, Stuff are still calling them 'mini-tornadoes'…

Yes, that is to what I call "20 year old journalism" reporting, which STUFF is bad for..

[Nev]

This follow-up story from the Otago Daily Times also includes some helpful comments from MS…

'Lucky escape from dust devils' - OTD



Plus a few more stories from the archives that might be of interest…

Jan 2013: 'Twister rips into Cromwell home' - OTD
Jul 2013: 'Cromwell twister throws boat, tramp' - TV3
Dec 2012: 'Cromwell homes damaged by twister' - NZ Herald
Nov 2012: 'Wind tosses caravan, hurls trampoline' - OTD
Jul 2009: 'Lucky escape as whirlwind hits' - OTD
Jan 2009: 'Mini tornados lift iron from roof of Bannockburn Hotel' - OTD

[Manukau heads obs]

yes, I thought it was a relatively common occurance in that area