Twisters ‘more common’ than many think, says bureau
The tornado that ripped through the Gold Coast on Christmas Day has locals fearing South East Queensland could face further deadly twisters, becoming a hotspot such as the notorious “tornado alley” in the central US.
But how common are tornadoes in South East Queensland? And could we soon be living with tornado alarms and having to build bunkers to protect ourselves like those portrayed in the 1996 blockbuster movie Twister?
The Bureau of Meteorology is still yet to confirm whether the supercell thunderstorm that demolished parts of the Gold Coast on Christmas Day produced a tornado but amateur storm chasers and avid weather watchers are certain they witnessed the rare phenomenon.
According to climate scientist and metrologist Bruce Harper, tornadoes in Queensland, especially in the southeast region, are fairly common and typically strike during this time of year.
“They are more common than the average might think, some suggest that once a year we can have one ‘tornado-day’ in the southeast of Queensland,” Mr Harper said.
“When the situation is right, much like it has been recently, with the concentration of severe storms or cluster storms especially if they are supercells then they can develop these tornadoes.”
As well as advances in technology, he says one of reason Queenslanders are seeing more tornadoes is because of the increasing population density and social media access.
“One of the main things weather watchers will look for is reports of sightings, that’s where most of it comes from still,” he said.
Bureau metrologist Daniel Hayes echoed similar sentiments.
“The Bureau are still looking into the satellite images so we can determine whether it was a tornado or a microburst,” Mr Hayes said.