Levin Tornado

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Nev
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Levin Tornado

Unread post by Nev »

03Stormchaser posted this story on another thread this morning about a tornado in Levin at about 4am. It's since been updated with damage-pics included. It makes fascinating reading so I thought it was worth mentioning again here for those that may have missed the update.

Family terrified as tornado rips through home
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Re: Levin Tornado

Unread post by NZstorm »

Maybe the tornado had started as a waterspout. The location is 10km from the coast so it travelled some distance.
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Re: Levin Tornado

Unread post by Nev »

Apart from lifting their roof, destroying their garage and a neighbour's woolshed, this statement intrigued me...
The family home also suffered extensive roof damage and the Bell's believe the tornado lifted their house off its footings. "The floor's quite warped now." They also believe one of the cars in the garage may have been completely lifted by the wind as there is "stuff jammed under one of the tyres".

There's also a follow-up article which adds that couple...
discovered two sets of French doors flung open with their locks snapped off, a window smashed and debris scattered through their dining room and sun room.
Stronger than F1 ?
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Re: Levin Tornado

Unread post by NZstorm »

Looks like an EF1 (F1) tornado. I'm sure there are plenty of these things in the west of the country during winter/spring but many go unobserved. It was almost certainly a waterspout that made landfall. The cold night time temperatures wouldn't be supportive of land based convection to trigger the spout. There could have been a front moving through but I don't think so as the southerly change came in later in the morn. The Paraparam 12Z sounding looks like a good waterspout sounding too. No doubt the Met Service may have more info on it as they have access to observed meteorological data.
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Re: Levin Tornado

Unread post by Nev »

Thanks Steven. Yes, definitely occurred before the southerly came through. I did wonder if it may have been a micro-burst as it was reported that Mrs Bell's father, who lives down the road, was woken by the wind and a "terrific downfall of rain at the time of the tornado", but the damage looks to have been very selective.

There's also a bit more info in this story from the 'Manawatu Standard', which also has a link to a nice little audio-slideshow recounted in the Bell family's own words.

Not sure if this 3am MetVUW rain-radar image helps any?
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Re: Levin Tornado

Unread post by 03Stormchaser »

Im thinking F1 (EF1). NZstorm is pretty much bang on, to me I think it would have started out as a waterspourt and as it hit land lifted but may have come own in places and touched down untill it died out. Just unlucky that it hit there property.
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