'Micro-burst' ruins crops and trees

A tornado-like "micro-burst" ripped trees out of the ground, flooded houses and destroyed a $20,000 crop in just minutes in the central Southland area of Heddon Bush, near Winton, yesterday afternoon.

45South Weather Services forecaster Andy Fraser said was probably a micro-burst of wind and hail during a very active thunder storm.

"It could have been a tornado but I like to see a funnel before I call it that," he said.

The storms were often localised to a few square kilometres and could whip up 160 km/h winds.

Heddon Bush farmer Peter Dykes said he was driving back to his house when the sky closed in and blackened.

"I was thinking, 'I hope the windows in the tractor are pretty strong' otherwise I'd be open to the elements. It was just an intense hailstorm, windy and very noisy."

He thought about jumping out and heading for a stand of poplars, but moments later they were "knocked over like match- sticks".

"It was just so black and dark you couldn't see a thing."

Several 100-year-old macrocarpa trees were uprooted, sheds were flung around and one lost its roof. Vehicles received hail-stone damage and the inside of the family house was flooded.

Crop farmer Robert Saunders returned to his Heddon Bush farm to find a 9ha crop of beans, worth about $20,000, destroyed by the storm.

- NZPA