Possible Storms South Island 3/1/13

[03Stormchaser]

Nice vid !
I would have thought the other lowered base you filmed at the very beginning would have produced something, but no it happened on each side of it.

Haven't had a chance to explain why I put that first lowered base in, that is the base the tornado came out of. Your spot on Ben Funnel came out of the storm that first formed of Mt Peel, in front of it very strong Cu went up forming this base, we then moved a few hundred meters North to get out of the rain you can here in the clip and the base to our right then dropped a funnel cloud very quickly and quite dramatically.

[Cook]

Outstanding work, 03Stormchaser, thank you.

[Tornado Tim]

Good stuff guys
Steven B, with regards to the Metservice phone number I strongly suggest you email Peter Kreft at Metservice and ask for the 0800 number to the severe weather desk. I have this number but I got told not to share it with anyone

[carrot]

Great video.
It's on stuff.co.nz

[Manukau heads obs]

Good stuff!

[03Stormchaser]

Cheers everyone!

Always wonder after something like this should I have got closer, could we have been in a better position giving that it seem to be visible for about 20 minutes etc etc Good learning curve for next time!

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Mug shot!

[dogmelon]

Thats some nice work capturing that. All funnels look amazing, it matters not as to their severity or whatever.
Thanks.

[Richard]

Always wonder after something like this should I have got closer, could we have been in a better position giving that it seem to be visible for about 20 minutes etc etc Good learning curve for next time!

And it wouldn't have been to hard to have got a bit close with the amount of roads around that area
Was that the twister that i heard on the radio that ripped over trees at the Mayfield golfcorse.??

[03Stormchaser]

Always wonder after something like this should I have got closer, could we have been in a better position giving that it seem to be visible for about 20 minutes etc etc Good learning curve for next time!

And it wouldn't have been to hard to have got a bit close with the amount of roads around that area
Was that the twister that i heard on the radio that ripped over trees at the Mayfield golfcorse.??

Yes that is the one behind me, actually very soon after the photo was taken did it touch down, we didnt notice it at the time. Talked to a lady from the Ashburton Guardian who went to the golf course today. From her description it sounds like the tornado touched down then lifted, touched down then lifted a couple of times.

[03Stormchaser]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8143070 ... olf-course

Video of the damage is up now, would be looking at a F1?

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

Interesting wee bit of rotation here this afternoon as a very weak convergence moved over.
Wind kept on changing 'twixt SW and NE, about 4 or 5 times, about 3pm.
Weak stratussy cloud moving around in circles above in a clear blue sky and then forming into a weak line just to the south of here and slowly dissipating before the NE became established.
Not very photographical but worth a mention after yesterday's activity down there in Mayfield, I thought

[Lacertae]

A couple of shots of the little cloud build up near Dunsandel, just to show how things were going north of the convergence line.

DSC_3467_nzwf.JPG

DSC_3468_nzwf.JPG

And the shots I've got of the Mayfield tornado seen from my spot 50km away. I had to torture the shots really hard in order to bring the interesting bits out, and turned them B&W as shades of grey are more photogenic than shades of blue. I left the second shot in color as it shows the overall setup more realistically.

P1020190_nzwf.JPG

P1020194_nzwf.JPG

DSC_3471_nzwf.JPG

I've got a couple of time-lapse videos of cloud bubbling, I'll post 'em if they are worth anything.

[Thunder]

Cool shots Ben, interesting that it could be seen quite a while away.

[spwill]

Thanks for the reports, photos/clips, a good example of a landspout tornado

We did our best though and watched the Mayfield tornado from start to finish. It never looked like a tornado as we saw no funnel to the ground but after seeing the reports and some pictures it does appear to be so. ]

Yes the funnel on tornadoes are not always visible to ground level even on a day with very good visibility lke yesterday.

[03Stormchaser]

Reed been in contact now shared thru TVN

[03Stormchaser]

Full report on Stormchasers.co.nz website:

http://www.stormchasers.co.nz/fastpage/ ... x/1/link/1

[03Stormchaser]

More twisters in the wind?

Batten down the hatches on Monday, the perfect tornado may be brewing in Ashburton’s back country.

Storm chaser Steve Burrows, who was in the eye of the tornado that ripped through Mayfield Golf Course on Thursday night, will be back in the area on Monday waiting for that tornado’s brother to arrive.

He’s one of a small group of enthusiasts who spend their spare hours chasing storms around New Zealand and on Thursday, he and fellow chaser Aaron Wilkinson were holed up in Mayfield from mid afternoon, watching storm clouds over Mt Peel and hoping they’d turn into a weather bomb.

And they weren’t disappointed. Just before 6pm the wind started to build, a funnel cloud developed and it became a full blown tornado. “We were waiting around and looking at Mt Peel because it seems to be a breeding area for thunderstorms when we noticed a lot of rotation in the clouds and a lot of lightning flashes. “Then we noticed one cloud was starting to rotate. It started off as a funnel cloud and then became a tornado,” he said.

In tornado terms, Mayfield’s was relatively weak, but if it had been closer to the ground it could have caused significant damage, Mr Burrows said. “The funnel cloud was quite strong for about 20 minutes but it was on the ground for less than 20 seconds.

At one point it came down quite fast and then sucked itself back up again.“Because it was quite weak, it was touching the ground and then lifting up again.”

For stormchasers, there’s nothing more exciting than the reward of capturing a weather event on film, he said. “It’s a bit like hunting, it’s the thrill of the chase. “We start by reading weather models so you know where a storm is likely and then you try to get as close to it as you can.

“I’ve had lightning so close over head I’ve felt it through my body.”

But there are always surprises. You can’t predict the path of lightning and you can’t always tell when a storm will throw up a tornado. Thursday’s tornado at Mayfield was a happy surprise, Mr Burrows said as the storm chasers had expected a thunderstorm at best.

“I’ve seen much better conditions that have yielded nothing. “This was a minor one, but it was a tornado because it had rotating air that touched the ground.” The aim of every storm chaser is to build up a storm image archive that will find a buyer. Mr Burrows and Mr Wilkinson are still waiting for that to happen.“It’s an expensive hobby, we don’t get anything back from it, but hopefully one day.“It will never pay the bills but if it can fund some of our trips that would be good.”

For the two storm chasers, capturing the Mayfield twister on film and video was celebrated with their post-storm tradition, a KFC twister combo.

- By Sue Newman

Article that appeared in the Ashburton Guardian today.

[Orion]

Thanks for the link to your report and for the Guardian article.
Well done!

[Lacertae]

For the time-lapse lovers, the links to the ones I shot on Thursday. For the second video I didn't re-center when the clouds moved away as I was busy shooting the Mayfield tornado happening behind me at the same time.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabirdnz/ ... otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabirdnz/ ... hotostream

[mikestormchaser]

Nice article!!

[GreggWard]

Just back from holidays, so have just seen this. Excellent work you guys.

[Powermad]

Great!

[03Stormchaser]

Sent this image on Facebook today of the Mayfield Tornado as viewed from Mt somers.


(Deane Taylor)

[Orion]

That must have been quite large: there's ten miles as the magpie flies between Mayfield and Mt Somers.

[NZ Thunderstorm Soc]

I think the Mayfield Tornado should have a seperate title so that this topic may be easily recognised.