Fatalities after a tornado ripped through Auckland today, turning cars upside down and causing a shopping mall roof to collapse.
Police say the tornado ripped the roof off the Albany Megacentre shopping mall in North Shore City about 3pm (1pm AEST). A St John Ambulance spokeswoman confirmed two people were killed, while Radio New Zealand reported that a third person had died. Police said the tornado ripped part of the roof off the Albany Megacentre shopping mall in the city’s north, flipping cars, uprooting trees and sending shoppers running for safety. The tornado left a 5km trail of debris as it moved south, eventually dying out as it neared central Auckland. Witnesses said the tornado sounded like “a giant vacuum cleaner” when it tore across the Albany Megacentre. Witness Rob Crawford said the scene resembled a disaster movie.
Video also at the Herald Sun — > Video
Tornadoes are not unheard of in NZ (brief history), but usually they are weak and short-lived. However, a powerful hybrid-tropical/extratropical cyclone has been spinning in the Tasman Sea leading to the threat of severe thunderstorms.
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Wait for it……the CAGWCEJ (causes everything juggernaut) is about to sally forth!
One confirmed death. Up to 21 injured taken to hospital. Appears to be around T6 on the TORRO scale (F3 – Fujita)
Here we go again!
“Tornado in Auckland might have been caused by global warming.”
Then the analysis. Then the debunking?
Mike Bromley the Kurd says:
May 2, 2011 at 11:52 pm
You got there first, well done. You are of course absolutely right, now, where are thoses witches three, oil boil, toil & trouble!
This tornado is unprecedented I tells ya. It’s worse than we thought because of global warming in a cooling world.
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It looks like the temperature on Tuesday at Aucland was below average.
Jim Salinger was name dropped on the news as our local tornado ‘expert’….. Jim Hansen is due here on a national tour soon…….. wait for the CAGW stuff to rear it’s ugly head…….
Correction:
I meant Monday was below average.
Updated… 2 dead… very unusual to have such a violent tornado in NZ… major flooding in Hawkes Bay last week and now this… must be autumn….
Also.. if you are going to link to a newspaper, how about a local paper instead of that Australian rag?? Try http://www.stuff.co.nz or http://www.nzherald.co.nz
I reckon it’s that b…h Nina !! Same as the Qld floods.
but NOT the same as the b…h that lies and spins.
My heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the families of the caualties.
While tornados are unusual in New Zealand, they are not unknown. For some reason, Albany seems to be sited in a mini ‘tornado alley’ as they have struck there before, but infrequently, thankfully, over the years.
Now the crazy and unscientific attributions for tornados will flood the newspapers there, while most people who have been around a while know it’s just another example of capricous weather.
o my god!!!!!!! sea water level is rising 3 times more than we actually expected
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anuva
Why is Gaia so angry at New Zealand?
In the case of the US tornado super-outbreak Willis showed that there was not much sign of a warming trend in the Carribean so it is probably only tendentiously linked to the global warming observed.
However there is evidence that the Tasman sea has warmed over the last decades, and as tropical storms and tornados are modulated in intensity by the temperature difference between local SST and more distant cold air influxes a strong tornado like the Aukland event is not CAUSED by the sea surface warming, but it is made much more probable by a warmer ocean surface.
http://www.niwa.co.nz/our-science/climate/information-and-resources/clivar/pastclimate
John-X says:
May 3, 2011 at 3:35 am
Why is Gaia so angry at New Zealand?
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They let Kevin Trenberth escape ??
I was 500 meters from it, never saw it but there was a lot of rain and debris lying around. Temperture was about normal today but it has been a quite wet autunm with loads of wind over the past 72 hours.
Also another earthquake a the top of the South Island, around 5 on the Richter scale. Indeed, what has NZ done to deserve all of this………
Talking of roof collapses……………..
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_uscBJn0p0&w=560&h=349%5D
Their ETS is cleary working to reduce AGW driven extreme weather events. Yeah right!
It’s a small country, and they’re still recovering from the Christchurch earthquake. I just hope their plight isn’t overshadowed by current events and they get the support they need. I think this is one place that even the CAGW crowd agrees with, that the victims of natural disaters need to be supported and helped back on their feet by us all. Nature is cruel and beautiful, as fantastic as it is dangerous and we should stand together to help those affected by the worst. We can disagree on the cause, but reaction to the effect should be unanimous. My sympathies go out to all those affected, your heartache is shared.
It’s worse than we thought!
Nothing to see here, move along now folks. :O)
This is unprecedented! A tornado has never damaged buildings before. So this is from ‘global warming’.
They warned us and we didn’t listen.
Pissed off Kiwi says:
May 3, 2011 at 4:54 am
what has NZ done to deserve all of this………
It’s from being located on planet earth
Michael Crichton, ‘Is this the end of the world? No, this is the world.’
“Witnesses said the tornado sounded like ‘a giant vacuum cleaner’ when it tore across the Albany Megacentre.”
They don’t have freight trains in New Zealand?
According to the NOAA New Zealand reports about 20 tornadoes each year. Nothing to see here, move along.