Taranaki tornado

Razor · Unread post by **Razor** » Thu 22/03/2007 12:01

Yesterday, according to the media!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4001697a11.html

Didn't seem to be much in the way of dramatic weather systems around the region yesterday but I'm willing to stand corrected. More likely it was a freak wind gust rather than a twister surely?

jrj · Unread post by **jrj** » Thu 22/03/2007 13:04

There's no such thing as a freak wind gust

squid · Unread post by **squid** » Thu 22/03/2007 22:02

at least they didnt use the mini word

Manukau heads obs · Fri 23/03/2007 06:52

there was lots of moisture around that day, with a weakening front/trough moving across the NI
and there was also a SE wind change developing.....which Taranaki is exposed to
there is no mention of any dark clouds/rain or threatening looking skies?

maybe it was a whirlwind, caused by an arriving colder drier SE wind from cook straight into the warmer moist air mass?

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Fri 23/03/2007 08:53

There was quite of a tight frontal boundary going through Taranaki that day so probably not suprising to have that tornado.

Paul Mallinson · Unread post by **Paul Mallinson** » Sun 25/03/2007 14:31

I had a look into this event. A number of things provide a clue I think.

1. There was turbulent eddy flow in the lee of Mt Taranaki with northwesterlies on the north Taranaki side meeting southwesterlies on the south Taranaki side.
2. A super adiabatic lapse rate off the surface (relatively shallow layer) with a dry adiabatic layer above that for for several thousand feet.

There was a strong inversion at about 4000ft from memory.

Visible satellite imagery at 1pm (event was at 12:45pm) showed some tightly formed low level cloud in the area at the time.

I called the school principle and she said that a local farmer had seen a swirling wind move through with debris flying up onto the sky.

My conclusion is that this was a willie-willie/dust devil type of event. The temperature and lapse rate conditions appear to have been conducive and the eddy flow around the mountain provided a good kicker.

Manukau heads obs · Sun 25/03/2007 14:57

sounds like a very plausable analaysis of what happened Paul I think

( i had thought about the mountain setting up a eddie in the wind myself too)

Razor · Unread post by **Razor** » Mon 26/03/2007 14:32

Cool Paul- great response! Sounds like an unusual one?

tich · Unread post by **tich** » Tue 27/03/2007 22:25

But was there any thunderstorm activity around there at the time?

Paul Mallinson · Unread post by **Paul Mallinson** » Wed 28/03/2007 13:55

None. The convective layer was only about 4000 feet deep.

Paul