NZ Weather Forum

Stunning video out of the Canterbury Tornado

Good video alright, interesting to see one spinning the other way after seeing so many USA tornadoes

Shame to see it in that silly narrow image rather than full page.

That tornado has to be the NZ weather event of 2015! A stunning tornado.

Made even more spectacular by moving over a cultivated paddock

Yea that latest video to emerge is awesome. I tagged roger hill in it on Facebook.

jamie wrote:Yea that latest video to emerge is awesome. I tagged roger hill in it on Facebook.

I'm waiting on him to start following the page!

Incredible video alright! He even got a good CG in background

MS confirmed to me the Tornado as EF-0 and landspout

03Stormchaser wrote:MS confirmed to me the Tornado as EF-0 and landspout

If it had have gone through a town I'm sure there would have been EF1 ratable damage.

The silage trailer is verging on EF1 strength. If it was lifted off the ground like a report suggests then that is definitely EF1.

I think nearly all those Canterbury tornadoes are a form of landspout (stretching vorticity upward). The drier Canterbury air masses makes it tough for a supercell tornado to occur.

What classifies a landspout? I always just thought a landspout was a waterspout thats hit land, I guess
more to do with general cloud tops NZstorm..
Sunday would have had characteristics of supercell nature with the hail size and accumulation plus the rotation observed, but certainly nowhere near some of the storms weve seen in the past.
What about the likes of the tornado in 2002 and the hallswel tornado, surely must have been more than a landspout.
Not that landspouts are weak by any means.

Storm Struck wrote:What classifies a landspout? I always just thought a landspout was a waterspout thats hit land, I guess
more to do with general cloud tops NZstorm..
Sunday would have had characteristics of supercell nature with the hail size and accumulation plus the rotation observed, but certainly nowhere near some of the storms weve seen in the past.
What about the likes of the tornado in 2002 and the hallswel tornado, surely must have been more than a landspout.
Not that landspouts are weak by any means.

A landspout occurs through stretching upward of low level vorticity.

A super cell tornado is initiated by a rear flank downdraft where the RFD wraps around the inflow and tightens it up into a vortex. But a supercell can have landspout tornadoes with it.

I agree a decent landspout is not a weak event.

Yes what a day Sunday was. It was almost identical in nature at our place to the 2012 supercell

The way the first storm parked over our area and surrounds was almost identical, it was virtually stationary for a couple of hours as it slowly intensified. Non stop thunder for most of that time. Then the hail was for a sustained 10-15 minutes, pea sized hail with the odd 'grape' as it rolled on through.

The way the noreaster fed it and certain rotations and wind changes observed, I reckon that had to be a hint of a supercell formation

Wow, such a photogenic tornado.

Razor wrote:Yes what a day Sunday was. It was almost identical in nature at our place to the 2012 supercell

The way the first storm parked over our area and surrounds was almost identical, it was virtually stationary for a couple of hours as it slowly intensified. Non stop thunder for most of that time. Then the hail was for a sustained 10-15 minutes, pea sized hail with the odd 'grape' as it rolled on through.

The way the noreaster fed it and certain rotations and wind changes observed, I reckon that had to be a hint of a supercell formation

at one point the height of it almost looked like it could of become supercell but no structure or anything suggested supercell development. Certainly a very strong thunderstorm I'd call it. Lots of instability last weekend. Was going to ask John despite being busy last Sunday did u get a hair cut and have a Johnny walker between thunderstorms? ?

mikestormchaser wrote: Was going to ask John despite being busy last Sunday did u get a hair cut and have a Johnny walker between thunderstorms? ?

Not this time, Mikey
...although I did have a wee dram and listened to some bagpipes at a neighbours place down the road between storms