NZ Weather Forum

Unconfirmed report of a tornado in BoP's Papamoa East around 3am this morning.

Nev wrote:Unconfirmed report of a tornado in BoP's Papamoa East around 3am this morning.

I had an inkling a tornado report would pop up in the media today.

12Z NZWP hodograph (wind chart), basically shows the start of the sounding beginning with good curvature(hook).

Assumed tornado was actually about 2:30am according to Karen on TVNZ. It apparently ripped up some backyards, took out some garden furniture, tossed a trampoline over fence and a lifted a roof. Will have wait for further reports I guess...

Thought I'd move these tornado reports to a separate thread for future ref.


Another report; this time in the Far North at about 9.45pm last night...

'Tornado scatters pine trees across SH10' - NZ Herald

good call by M/S as they said possibility of a tornado for eastern northland

Its been a quiet winter for tornado reports up until now.

Certainly starting to look more like a tornado going by this report...

'Far North tornado leaves trail of destruction' - Northern Advocate

Anyone happen to take a radar scan from around then? Probably wont see much through as it's probably too far north.

The 9pm Purerua observation temp of 14.9C and dewpoint 14.4C. Surface wind NNE 8kts.

From GFS 2000ft wind NNW30kts, 5000ft NW40kts.

Those numbers would give reasonable shear.

jamie.haultain wrote:Anyone happen to take a radar scan from around then? Probably wont see much through as it's probably too far north.

I have a BOP one but not the Auckland one.....
Yes, if the radar did detect rotation it would be in the upper part of the storm and couldn't focus on the lower half.
Northland radar should fix this, when is the install date for this btw?

Would be nice to see that BoP radar image Tim. Doesn't appear to much more in the way details.

I think the Northland radar was meant to be installed by December of this year. Not sure if that's still on track though?

OK here we are, I couldn't see anything at first in the images, I then saw a cylindrical shape of stronger echoes around just east of Tauranga at around 3.45 AM. However based on the radar scale this cylinder of stronger echos is fairly big and due to the fact that it only effected East Papamoa means that it couldnt be it.
3.00 AM scan had an area of heavier precip around the 3 AM area also.

I have the other scans around then too, but they have particularly weak echos or none at all around Tauranaga.

Thanks Tim. Nothing around 2:30am on Sunday?


Yet another report later that morn at Mt Maunganui...

'Weather hampers power outage efforts' - SunLive

A mini tornado caused further power cuts in Mount Maunganui just after 8am on Sunday.

[PowerCo’s Phil Marsh says] “Nearly 700 properties were left without power when a roof went through the lines. Supply was fully restored to these customers by 9.45am.” ...

P.S. Not sure that microbursts could be ruled out for some of these reports though?

Nev wrote:Thanks Tim. Nothing around 2:30am on Sunday?

There was a WER (Weak Echo Region) indicated on radar around the Papamoa area but to ID it better id need to zoom in much more which requires RAW data from radar and not a lossy image.

I have attached it for reference.

Nev wrote:Yet another report later that morn at Mt Maunganui...

'Weather hampers power outage efforts' - SunLive

A mini tornado caused further power cuts in Mount Maunganui just after 8am on Sunday.

[PowerCo’s Phil Marsh says] “Nearly 700 properties were left without power when a roof went through the lines. Supply was fully restored to these customers by 9.45am.” ...

P.S. Not sure that microbursts could be ruled out for some of these reports though?

It looks like the occluded front passed through then with an area of stronger echos (40 to 46dbz) developing of the coast and then heading into the Mt, it looks like this might be stronger outflow of some sort.
To confirm, I would ask Metservice for a copy of the Dopplar Velocity images they have around that time, I am sure they would let you have a copy for research purposes.

Microbursts typically distribute winds in a 360° fashion from the point of more intense precip (or echos in this case), on the other hand is a strong outflow (eg Gust front) which is one sided.

Tornado Tim wrote:

jamie.haultain wrote:Anyone happen to take a radar scan from around then? Probably wont see much through as it's probably too far north.

I have a BOP one but not the Auckland one.....
Yes, if the radar did detect rotation it would be in the upper part of the storm and couldn't focus on the lower half.
Northland radar should fix this, when is the install date for this btw?

Northland radar hoping to go live mid next year I believe

Thanks again Tim.


And yet another BoP report at about 2am that Sunday morn...

'Waihi Beach home battered by tornado' - Waikato Times (Stuff)

Report of a 'tornado' in Dinsdale, west Hamilton at 12:30pm today...

'Mini-tornado takes out back fence' - Waikato Times (Stuff)

Also a follow-up story to Sunday night's Northland tornado...

'Twister takes trees' - Northern Advocate

Really can't see that Hamilton one being a tornado.

Really annoying that they labeling it a mini tornado.

jamie.haultain wrote:Really can't see that Hamilton one being a tornado.

Really annoying that they labeling it a mini tornado.

My thoughts too.

The report from Northland is interesting, thanks for the links Nev.

Certainly not a Tornado today in Hamilton.

Not all the ingredients were not present today.

Radar at 12.30 PM for peoples reference (showing a rather small and weak squally shower).