Lucky escape for motorist as Otago ‘tornado’ flattens trees

As high winds grounded flights and delayed ferries around parts of the country, a ‘‘tornado’’ swirling across an Otago lake flattened trees and left motorists scurrying for cover.

A swirling gust of wind appeared over the Lowburn inlet off Lake Dunstan near Cromwell shortly after 3pm yesterday, whipping up whitecaps as it skittered across the water before crashing into a grove of trees. Witnesses said the funnel rose to around 60 metres and lasted for about 45 seconds, felling trees on the edge of the lake.

One motorist had a lucky escape when his car was caught in the edge of the gust before managing to pull over and get out of its path.

The ‘‘tornado’’ came as gales and heavy downpours lashed parts of New Zealand, bringing trees down on cars and forcing roads to be closed.

Kyle Clark had just sat down in his home on Lowburn Valley Rd after returning from a trip to Alexandra when he heard a loud bang that he thought was thunder.

‘‘I looked outside and it was in the middle of the inlet – the wind was making a whirl and swirling on the water and upwards.’’

By the time Clark grabbed his camera and dashed outside to begin filming it had moved across the inlet towards the far side, where it battered a small grove and uprooted about 20 trees.

The Met-Service said it had not been aware of any tornadoes in the Cromwell area yesterday, and there had been no Forecaster Aidan Pyselman said it was hard to confirm it had been a tornado without seeing proof of a funnel cloud, suggesting it may have instead been a very strong gust of wind.