Tornado!

Written By: - Date published: 3:35 pm, May 3rd, 2011 - 22 comments
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A tornado hit Albany in Auckland City.

Ouch. I hope that there aren’t any or even not too many injuries. I’ve just been looking at the weather outside across the harbor and saying that it was that weird warmish with the classic Auckland vertical river rain. Then this news came in.

Those wee twisters in the north of Auckland are a pain. I remember one exploding a shack that we’d built up at the farm near Puhio in the late 70’s. They aren’t uncommon around Auckland as the old ARC points out here.

But I have to request that this government does not send any of their inept ministers up here to take over their fiefdom. We are finally rid of Rodney Hide, the author of the super shitty. And we don’t want to suffer the fate of Christchurch.

Updates:

NZ Herald

A roof has collapsed at a mall in the Auckland suburb of Albany and the building is being evacuated, reports say. Police have confirmed injuries in the area.

Samantha Davey from Albany Optometrists said it appeared that part of the roof at the neighbouring Albany Mega Centre had been torn away.

“We are a bit above the mall, looking down from our building we can see part of the mall roof is gone,” she said.

“It looks like it’s the bit behind Number 1 shoe Warehouse but our building is a bit above on Corinthian Drive so it’s hard to tell.

TV3 reports a death.

15:38 The bridge looks to running (I can see it).

And there is video

http://a.yfrog.com/img24/5594/pno.mp4

22 comments on “Tornado! ”

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  1. Armchair Critic 1
    3 May 2011 at 3:51 pm

    It looks like the Harbour Bridge is shut

  3. r0b 3
    3 May 2011 at 3:59 pm

    Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. We can expect more of this sort of thing in the future…

    • infused 3.1
      4 May 2011 at 9:14 am

      We’ve always had them, you’re just noticing them more these days because of technology. Stuff is reported as soon as it happens.

  4. joe90 4
    3 May 2011 at 4:04 pm

    Something to put Aucklands tornado into context.

    An aerial video too.

  5. JonL 5
    3 May 2011 at 4:20 pm

    We lived on a farm on Oteha Valley Rd, late’50’s-mid ’60’s , and saw at least 2 small twisters in that time. There has also been the odd twister up through the Albany village area, over the years

  6. Anne 6
    3 May 2011 at 5:41 pm

    There is a man-made lake not far from the Albany Mega Centre, and a witness described seeing the water being sucked up into the twister. That would have had the effect of supplying extra energy to that which already existed and probably accounted for the extensive devastation.

    • toad 6.1
      3 May 2011 at 5:49 pm

      Are you referring to the Rosedale one that is, literally, full of shit?

      • Anne 6.1.1
        3 May 2011 at 6:52 pm

        Come on Toad. You know it’s been treated and is quite safe. I wouldn’t go swimming in it though.

        • Lindsey 6.1.1.1
          3 May 2011 at 8:09 pm

          If you swim at any east coast North Shore beach you may be swimming in it! Very diluted though and very well screened. Pumped out about 2k off the coastline. I think the man made lake is a stormwater pond which is part of the landscaping of the Albany centre.

  7. Vicky32 7
    3 May 2011 at 6:01 pm

    Scary stuff! A friend of mine just mentioned it on Facebook, and now I hear on 3 News, that 2 people are dead.
    Amazing!

  8. Jenny 8
    3 May 2011 at 7:28 pm

    ????
    “Small tornadoes are not uncommon in Auckland”. LPRENT

    Lynn do you know their frequency?

    Has this frequency been increasing over the decades?

    Could Auckland become New Zealand’s Tornado Alley?

    • lprent 8.1
      3 May 2011 at 7:39 pm

      You can expect them to turn up every few years. Ummm the ARC site in the post says 2-3 years which would be about right. They’re small but locally quite violent. For some reason in Auckland they usually seem to turn up in the wider North Shore.

      I don’t think that the frequency has been increasing, but it’d take a close examination of the stats to prove it one way or another. NZ’s climate is massively moderated by the seawater and particularly the warm and cold currents. Because of that we don’t get the sharp climatic change effects that you’d get on a more continental climate. (The downside of that is our weather is only slightly more predictable than a psuedo random number generator)

      • Colonial Viper 8.1.1
        3 May 2011 at 7:50 pm

        The other issue is the increasing density of human development. 30 years ago a tornado could have gone through Albany and no one would have blinked. Not much there. It would have been a curiosity and damage would have been relatively slight.

        • higherstandard 8.1.1.1
          3 May 2011 at 7:56 pm

          One did go through around thirty years ago – took out an old weatherboard church and shredded a stand of pines.

        • lprent 8.1.1.2
          3 May 2011 at 10:18 pm

          Yeah that area has filled in immensely since I was in my teens. It used to be pretty much empty until the 90’s

    • rosy 8.2
      3 May 2011 at 7:42 pm

      Taranaki is the other place for tornados, I think. Seem to hear about more there than anywhere else.

  9. Gramsci 9
    3 May 2011 at 7:49 pm

    Did anyone else notice on One News that they lead with one person being killed but when they referred viewers to their website, the lead story on the website had that two people had died. They continued with the number of dead being one in their summary as well.

    This number of two is what I heard on NatRad as well an hour earlier. Ironic that the cash-strapped public radio trumps the Qantas best news award winner.

  10. Anne 10
    3 May 2011 at 7:55 pm

    … our weather is only slightly more predictable than a psuedo random number generator

    That we are two islands surrounded by ocean with mountainous territory thrown in, makes NZ one of the hardest places on the planet to forecast the weather. Consequently our atmospheric scientists and forecasters get far greater experience in the art of forecasting than many of their counterparts overseas. They are some of the most highly regarded in the international meteorological community.

  11. Cannot think of a clever name 11
    3 May 2011 at 11:47 pm

    “(The downside of that is our weather is only slightly more predictable than a psuedo random number generator)”

    psuedo random number generators are very predictable – but real point taken – lol

  12. Virginia Anderson 12
    6 May 2011 at 2:22 pm

    I blame the Govt!!