Low to cross country early week of 11th-15th Aug'

[NZstorm]

Interesting report there tgsnoopy. Yes, the front wasn't very active over Auckland, a bit of a fizzer here. I did catch that afternoon shower that David mentioned, I was on the N/shore, you could hear the rain coming it was so heavy.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Thanks for that report.
Jim did mention and showed a large hailstone on the TV One weather tonight.
Sadly, even though muffled, he did mention that 'mini' word

JohnGaul
NZTS

[Nev]

... Sadly, even though muffled, he did mention that 'mini' word

Yes However, to his credit, Jim (or whoever supplies the info) did mention that a 'downburst' was an equal possibility.

[Paul Mallinson]

The situation was conducive to the formation of tornados on the front due to the high wind shear - north to northeasterlies at the surface backing around to the west and increasing with height. Storm relative helicities were up over -250 or more (forget the units).

Paul

[Vertigo]

i actually thought i spotted a weak funnel cloud in greenlane, but it dissapated fairly quickly.

[Nev]

Some interesting conflicting reports from the media ...

Roof ripped off garage - 'all the windows ... started shaking' - Bay of Plenty Times
12.08.2008
... As she looked out the window, Mrs Wharekawa saw what she described as a tornado go past, leaving a path of destruction behind it. ...

'Tornado' damages Mt Maunganui houses - Radio NZ
Updated at 2:44pm on 12 August 2008
About 20 buildings in Mount Maunganui have been damaged in what Metservice says was probably a small tornado. ... MetService says the wind was probably a tornado, but it needs more information before it can say for certain.

Tornado tears through town - The Dominion post
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
... Harlene Wharekawa watched as a swirling cloud of debris smashed against her bedroom window and ripped off her garage roof. ... The mini-tornado lasted only a few minutes but cut a narrow, kilometre-long path of destruction. At least six homes were damaged or lost roof tiles....

Suburb in the wars again as severe wind hits homes - NZ Herald
5:00AM Wednesday August 13, 2008
... But the Tauranga Fire Service said yesterday's damage appeared to be the result of a strong downdraft because it did not cause the kind of devastation seen from tornadoes in the area in the past. "This was more like a big wind dump," senior station officer Mark Keller said. "It wasn't tornado damage." The MetService also said the damage was probably the result of a "downburst", which was a powerful gust of wind generated by a thunderstorm cloud. ...

[Vertigo]

there is currently a rather interesting rain feature west of auckland.. almost a right angle gust!

[Manukau heads obs]

yes, looks to be a small low centre is going to cross auckland in the next hour...you can see the rotation on the rain radar

[ricky]

There have been some interesting meso-cyclonic looking curls happening in all that on the radar.. the NE-SW shower line on that image has a nice curl developing on its western end at the moment

[jamie]

Looked nasty as i walked to uni this morning. Here is a pic i took with my cell phone looking southish on the symonds st overpass.
If anything happens i wont be there to see it...be stuck inside and underground doing uni work and lectures allday. I missed what action there was yesterday aswell

[Manukau heads obs]

big CB line going over the top of the coromandel now according to the rain radar...it got more intense over the gulf by the looks...
SW wind change coming in here now

[David]

Torrential cloud burst type shower just through here! 3mm rain in about 5minutes
Plenty of sheets of spray as it pounded roofs, and lots of surface water.

And this time the eastern beach station reported nothing

[spwill]

Torrential cloud burst type shower just through here! 3mm rain in about 5minutes
Plenty of sheets of spray as it pounded roofs, and lots of surface water.

The cloud top

[Nev]

Same here. Got 5mm in about 1 hour from the late-morning rainband that Brian eluded to earlier and a further 3mm from a couple of 2-3 minute dumps mid-arvo.

[NZstorm]

Yes, some interesting looking convection around this afternoon. More coming in for the morning judging by satellite pic.

Looking ahead, Fridays front could be interesting. Looks to be a reasonable chance of thunderstorms with it for western regions of the NI and squall gusts of 50kts (100km/h) likely.

[waterboy]

Hi all, it was quiet a lovely day around here. I havent seen so much snow on the mountains for a very long time --- Its nice to see really. The ski fields will be happier now.

[Nev]

Belated report of another tornado (?) in Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty last Friday (15th) - 3 days after tgsnoopy heard reports 2 large waterspouts coming ashore there and the media reported tornado (later thought to be a downburst) at Mt Maunganui...

'Sixteen cows killed by falling power lines - NZ Herald
7:12PM Tuesday August 19, 2008
A farmer in the Bay of Plenty says 16 of his cows were killed when a violent twister brought down power lines on his farm on Friday. ...

Must've been a helluva 'twister'?

P.S. Perhaps mods could rename this thread 'Low to cross country early week of 11th-15th Aug' ?

[tgsnoopy]

Oh I forgot to put in a followup.

Yesterday I drove some 740km, I was working with a part time hospital driver who also works as a community work supervisor. There were indeed two large waterspouts that came ashore in roughly the same area about 45 minutes apart.

There was damage to some trees, broken off close to ground level beside the Waiaua River. The group he was supervising was working up at the Waiaua Marae (South of Opotiki, Where the Motu Road comes out at the coast).

Sadly the trees had been removed, but the broken stumps were obvious. Not close enough to the road for me to get pics with the camera phone though. As it was close to a 12 hour day I didn't go off road for a photo.

[tgsnoopy]

There was damage to some trees, broken off close to ground level beside the Waiaua River. The group he was supervising was working up at the Waiaua Marae (South of Opotiki, Where the Motu Road comes out at the coast).

Here is a story verifying it. Jackson Road is pretty much right where I saw the broken trees.

[Nev]

Hi tgsnoopy,
Sorry but I'm a little confused, because on Tuesday 12th (previous page) you posted...

Heard reports of two large waterspouts coming ashore near Opotiki when working at Kutarere near lunch time.

However, that yahoo link that you posted above (which is a duplicate of NZPA story I posted above that) reports that the "tornado" ripped through the Jackson Rd area, east of Opotiki, on Friday.

So, is the event that you referred to last Tuesday separate to last Friday's event?
Or has the NZPA report mistaken last Friday of the 15th for the previous Friday of the 8th?

[tgsnoopy]

I beleive the report may be flawed. Either that or they had a third in a week.

I've spoken to two independant witnesses who saw two on the Tuesday.

Sorry, I overlooked the date issue, but it is the correct location.

[Nev]

Ah! Thanks for clarifying that tgsnoopy.

Yes, does sound like the article may by flawed. Shame it doesn't say who the original author was.

(sorry about the dyslectic first question btw - corrected now)

[TonyT]

[Off topic posts deleted and/or moved]

[tgsnoopy]

FYI - I intend to take the camera down and get photo's of the broken tree's in a couple of weeks (all going well). Spoke to yet another witness at Whakatane Hospital today. Definitely Tuesday, no reports of another on Friday.

Oh to have been there at the time (with a camera).