A meteorologist says while it was not confirmed that the weather system that ripped through Mangawhai overnight was a tornado, the conditions aligned with what usually spawned them.
Around 50 homes and buildings were damaged and two people seriously injured when strong winds tore through the Northland town at around 3am this morning.
Nearly 5000 properties were without electricity overnight, but power has since been restored to most — except for 247 households on Moir St and Old Waipu Rd.
MetService meteorologist Clare O’Connor said a “very active front” passed over Northland in the early hours of the morning, bringing strong gusts, bursts of heavy rain, and around 800 lightning strikes.
Although MetService was unable to confirm if it was a tornado, she said the conditions were typical for the formation of small twisters.
“At the end of the day, the strong winds – whether it was from a tornado or just these strong winds that come with thunderstorms – are going to damage in the same sort of way.”
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The worst of the weather came through between 2am and 3am, with a wind gust of 122km/h recorded near Mangawhai at Tiritiri Lighthouse.
Northland, Auckland, the Coromandel Peninsula, and the Bay of Plenty recorded rainfall of between 10-30mm during the event.
Mangawhai, located on the east coast of Northland, was particularly exposed to weather coming from the north or northeast direction, O’Connor said.
“That is going to be more likely to affect them just because they are more exposed to that direction.”
Tornadoes in New Zealand are generally associated with pre-frontal squall lines, bands of thunderstorms embedded in a strong, unstable pre-front northwesterly flow, according to NIWA.
“The thunderstorms have very strong updrafts and if these occur in an environment in which the wind directions rotate counterclockwise as the air rises, the updraft can start to spin and a mesocyclone can form.”
