KEY POINTS:
A mini-tornado caught Dargaville by surprise yesterday, ripping the roof off a flat and wrecking neighbouring yards before whirling on its way as abruptly as it had arrived.
Retired farmer Ray Stallworthy said the tornado struck about 1.30pm with a thunderous noise he had thought could be train crash at the railway station across the road from his home at 1/31 Station Rd.
Sozia Haroon, who had moved into 6/31 Station Rd three weeks ago, was sitting in her lounge when there was a "huge bang" and a howling wind ripped roofing iron off her garage and a neighbour's flat.
She saw sheets of iron blown high in the air. Some of them were found about 150m away near the railway station.
"I was frightened. I couldn't close the window," she said.
The wind wrenched plywood panels off her fence, wrecked a neighbour's gates, blew off the garage doors next door and scattered pot plants and garden furniture at the block of flats and the homes around it.
Caregiver Sue Barbalich was at work when she got a call from Godfrey Abbott about damage to the flat she rents from him at 5/31 Station Rd.
He had said, "It's got no roof," and, shocked, she had asked: "What do you mean?"
There were only two or three minutes of rain with the tornado and Ms Barbalich said she had been lucky with the sudden storm causing little damage inside her home.
Within 30 minutes of the high winds, Mr Abbott had King Bros contractors retrieving the wind-whipped iron and repairing the damaged roof.
Power and telephone connections severed in the tornado were promptly restored.
And grandchildren who had called for a cup of tea with Mr Stallworthy were put to work cleaning up the mess caused by airborne debris smashing the rear window of his vehicle.
The oldtimer, who had farmed "at the back of Aratapu", said yesterday's blow was nothing much in comparison with a tornado that hit the area in the 1950s.
"That one was a mile wide," Mr Stallworthy said.
The MetService predicted thundery weather over Dargaville yesterday, putting a warning on its website just after 1pm.
The service issued a "severe convection/
thunderstorm outlook" with heavy showers predicted over western areas of Northland and around the Kaipara Harbour. Wind gusts to 80km/h and small hail were also possible.
MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said the conditions were ideal for a mini-tornado like the one that had hit Dargaville.
"It was because of that unstable air. We have the warming land and cold air above that is making things unstable," he said.
Mr McDavitt said reasonably heavy rain was possible over Dargaville today, but there was unlikely to be a repeat of yesterday's mini-tornado.
"There could be 10-25mm of rain an hour up there which could cause some surface flooding, but that's it," he said.
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE
