'I didn't want to get caught in the eye': Witnesses say Hawke's Bay funnel cloud was likely a tornado

The rain radar over Hawke's Bay at 4.52pm shows the unstable weather system. In the middle is a "hole in the sky" which is the funnel cloud forming. Photo / MetService

A witness says a funnel-shaped cloud spotted during a storm in Hawke's Bay touched down on a hillside, sending dust flying into the air around it.

The suspected tornado - funnel clouds are classified as tornados when they hit land or water spouts if they hit water - didn't do any damage and "disappeared into thin air" southwest of Hastings soon after.

The front on Sunday afternoon brought much-needed rain, along with some thunder and lightning, but it was the funnel cloud and suspected tornado that lit up social media.

The funnel cloud gets very close to the ground near Raukawa. Photo / Kylee Hodgetts

Several readers sent Hawke's Bay Today their pictures, including Kylee Hodgetts.

Hodgetts, who was driving at the time, said she got within a kilometre of the funnel cloud near Pakipaki.

"At one stage we felt it touched down - there was a big cloud of dust around it as it did, just on the hillside. Then all of a sudden it was gone, it disappeared into thin air."

The funnel cloud from Mt Erin Rd. Photo / Robin Sage

The cloud formed southwest of Hastings, near Raukawa and Pakipaki, around 5pm, MetService meteorologist Alwyn Bakker said.

Bakker said it wasn't clear if it had touched the ground but the conditions had enough energy to suggest it could have.

The front was like a "boiling pot" and, as such, the funnel cloud was likely to have been very localised, he said.

"When the pot's on the stove you don't know exactly where the bubbles are going to appear, but you know there's going to be bubbles."

Bakker said a satellite image of Hawke's Bay's weather at 4.52pm clearly showed the cloud forming, characterised by what looks on the map like "a hole in the sky".

The rain radar over Hawke's Bay at 4.52pm shows the unstable weather system. In the middle is a "hole in the sky" which is the funnel cloud forming. Photo / MetService

"It's very meteorologically exciting, though of course if it appears in the wrong place it can be a bad thing for those near it."

There were no Fire and Emergency NZ callouts that suggested there had been damage.

The funnel cloud forming near Pakipaki. Photo / Russ Engelke

Bakker said the front had delivered 11mm of rain to Hastings over the following seven hours and 8mm to Napier.

The Takapau Plains got the most rain, with 17mm falling from 3pm on Sunday to 7am on Monday morning.

Hastings woman Chelsea Richards was out moving cows and had yet to put the covers on the ponies when she noticed the funnel cloud forming in the distance.

Several residents from south-west of Hastings watched the unusual cloud formation. Photo / Monique Corby

"I just noticed the sky getting dark," she said. "I saw it I was trying to figure out what it was. I must admit I felt relieved when it dissolved."

Hastings woman Chelsea Richards said she felt relieved after seeing the funnel cloud formation dissolve. Photo / Chelsea Richards

April Pereka and her family were equally worried when they came across it while driving home.

"We were watching it in the far distance and started getting worried as it got closer and closer until it was right in front of us."

She pulled over "just in case", but thankfully it passed without incident.

"I didn't want to get caught in the eye of it."

A waterspout - which is a water funnel resembling a tornado - was also spotted near
Napier in April.