Avondale, Auckland Tornado - Sep 11

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Avondale, Auckland Tornado - Sep 11

Unread post by ricky »

Tornado reported in Avondale, trees and power lines down and some roofs off houses.. ash/canal/rosebank rd area..
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by bmo »

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10751017

Northern fire communications said they had received up to five calls just after 1pm, with reports of house roofs flying off and power lines down.
A spokesman said: "We've got jobs ranging from lightening striking a house, a roof coming off a garage and tiles coming off a roof of a retirement home. We've also got power lines down.''
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Nev »

Could that be a hook-echo dead centre of the 1pm radar pic (just E of Avondale)?
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by spwill »

A good downpour here with a clap thunder early afternoon just before the weather cleared.

I took a look at the Tornado damage over at Avondale, power lines down on some streets made it harder to get a good look at the damage with some streets being closed.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Manukau heads obs »

thanks for the photos Spwill!
looks like 70 knot wind speed damage?
F0 tornado?
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by spwill »

This portable home being blown over.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by NZstorm »

Yes, I had a look with spwill, F0 tornado damage for a distance of about 1km. I would say 70kt winds.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Manukau heads obs »

whenever you get a NE -> NW wind change on an active front in the early afternoon you can just about bank on a nado somewhere in the auckland area
Maybe M/S should have had a possibility of one in their thunderstorm outlook, just due to the timing

went real dark here as the main front went through, so it had alot of veritical height to it
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by spwill »

Live power lines down across this street and a couple of other shots showing damage to homes
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by spwill »

A few more photos
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by NZstorm »

Fire appliances on Canal street, Avondale.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Vertigo »

No way, I was in Avondale at that time, didnt notice anything tho.. must have been quite localized and short lived.

edit: in fact, only about 1km from canal st, nikau rd.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Nev »

TV3 have a pic of the tornado apparently taken from Ash Street.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Manukau heads obs »

from that article Nev:
The Fire Service believes the damage extends around one kilometre wide
OMG, that should read long, not wide surely!

Vertigo, I bet you cant believe you missed it....especialy looking at the photo in that link above
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Nev »

The NZ Herald also includes a report of the tornado as far away as the 'The Concourse' in Henderson (N'ern side the Lincoln Rd / NW Motorway interchange). That's gotta be a good 10km to the NW.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by 03Stormchaser »

The photo doesnt seem to match the photos of damage im seeing.
But looking at a map it could be right, but were did all the debris come from?
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by spwill »

Not sure about that photo as well ( TV 3), seems to be a lot of debris in the air there, similar to the Albany Tornado over Placemakers. Hoping for more photos or footage over the next day or two.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Richard »

Wow you fellas have really had it rough up that way :( hope everyone's ok and not to much damage.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by NZstorm »

whenever you get a NE -> NW wind change on an active front in the early afternoon you can just about bank on a nado somewhere in the auckland area
Maybe M/S should have had a possibility of one in their thunderstorm outlook, just due to the timing
Yes I agree. The best method for forecasting tornadoes in NZ is by pattern recognition, the moist trough coming in from the NW.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Michael »

Taranaki/maybe waikato tomorrow in a westerly.
NZstorm wrote:
whenever you get a NE -> NW wind change on an active front in the early afternoon you can just about bank on a nado somewhere in the auckland area
Maybe M/S should have had a possibility of one in their thunderstorm outlook, just due to the timing
Yes I agree. The best method for forecasting tornadoes in NZ is by pattern recognition, the moist trough coming in from the NW.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Nev »

Agree with the comments about the TV3 tornado pic. I notice they didn't bother to include it in their video-clip, which suggests that even they may have had their doubts.

Also, most of the media reports say the tornado went from Avondale to Te Atatu South, which would've meant going against the prevailing winds (probably because damage reports came from Avondale first). However, this morn's Stuff says, "witnesses said they saw the tornado form underneath "weird stripy clouds" in the estuary near the North Western Motorway between Waterview and Te Atatu South", which suggests its path must've been the other way around. Seems to make more sense to me.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Cook »

Isn't it odd that no one got a decent picture or a video of this "tornado"? Auckland is a densly populated place and these days most people carry equipment around that can take pictures and sometimes videos. I would love to know what really happened here.

Many people seem to jump to the conclusion that a tornado was involved if there are sudden damaging wind gusts. I would like to point this out:

"Damaging wind from thunderstorms is much more common than damage from tornadoes. In fact, many confuse damage produced by "straight-line" winds and often erroneously attribute it to tornadoes."

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/tstorms/wind.htm

By all means have a read, it is good stuff.

I am not saying that this was not a tornado. I just want to point out that it is not helpful when media report tornadoes and witnesses assume that there was a tornado without having actually seen a tornado.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Nev »

There were quite a few eye-witness accounts of people who actually saw the tornado. Probably one of the most convincing is this one from an earlier NZ Herald story (unfortunately it hasn't been included in their updated version)...
nzherald.co.nz breaking news videographer Tim Rathael reports that St John Ambulance workers saw the tornado directly in front of them while on a job and were among the first to report it to other emergency services.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by spwill »

Cook wrote:. I just want to point out that it is not helpful when media report tornadoes and witnesses assume that there was a tornado without having actually seen a tornado.

People in the area saw the tornado, I talked to a few of them yesterday. Not sure why there are no photos but it was short lived, the torrential shower just before the tornado hit would have had most people indoors. . The damage trail I saw is classic tornado damage.
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Re: Tasman Low / Active Front - Sep 11-14

Unread post by Cook »

Many thanks.
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