Mini tornado ‘pretty scary stuff ’, whips roofs off buildings
Next thing we know we saw roofing iron get pulled up and flying around in the sky. It would have taken about 15 seconds to form into a full-blown tornado. Samuel Garratt
A mini tornado lifted roofs and smashed windows in the coastal town of Mangawhai Heads, north of Auckland yesterday.
The tornado formed from low, dark cloud around 4pm and travelled from the semi-rural area around King Rd towards the beach.
It lasted only a few minutes but locals reported street signs and trees were ripped out, windows smashed and flying debris landed in residents’ sections.
Builder Samuel Garratt, who was working at a site on Cove Rd, said he saw at least two roofs being blown off buildings.
“I was on my work site and we were just packing up because the weather had packed it in,” he told the Weekend Herald.
“We just saw this big cloud start funnelling down in the distance.
“We thought it may have been a fire because it got dark quite quickly. Then it started swirling around and we thought maybe some birds had got sucked into it.
“Next thing we know we saw roofing iron get pulled up and flying around in the sky.”
He was shocked at how quickly the tornado formed. It formed, collapsed and then reformed again.
“It was crazy. It started thundering down. It was insane. It would have taken about 15 seconds to form into a full-blown tornado.”
Garratt said the tornado moved along for about 1km before it eventually dissipated.
“It was spinning quite frantically.
We were lucky it didn’t come anywhere near us. We were pretty worried.
“When we saw the roof coming off the other place we hoped everyone was okay. It’s pretty scary stuff.”
Resident Pamela Gervai said it was
“like a big twister” that touched down several times and then dissipated.
“Along with that, we had a lot of wild wind, thunder, lightning flashes and just a dramatic downpour of rain.”
Fire and Emergency responded to reports of damage including to properties on Cove Rd and Bagnal Rd, where the roof had been lifted.
MetService said thunderstorms, heavy rain and wind gusts would continue into this morning around Northland, Auckland and Coromandel but any tornadoes were likely to be localised. with RNZ