Prior to 2005

Have come across this article in The Press that I thought you may be interested in.
The one in Halswell January 19th 1983 was awful and left a lot of damage and will try and find the article on it.
The violent storm in 2002 took out my Weather Station when it was hit by lightening.

NZ not immune from tornadoes
PAUL GORMAN Last updated 16:49 03/05/2011

Tornadoes are not as unusual in New Zealand as some might believe, though rarely do they attain the size and lethal capability that Aucklanders have seen first-hand this afternoon.

Chaotic up-and-downdraughts of air within and below severe thunderstorms can generate funnel clouds. In some cases these rapidly spinning cores of air do not reach the ground, but when they do, they become tornadoes.

Parts of New Zealand which experience the most squally and thundery weather are more at risk from tornadoes and the damage they can bring, particularly the western parts of both islands.

However, Canterbury has also had damaging tornadoes in the past, most notably the January 1983 Halswell storm which ripped through the suburb in the middle of a particularly stormy summer. In October 2002, the wildest thunderstorm since the 1983 event raced up the Canterbury Plains, spawning two tornadoes and pounding parts of the city with hailstones as big as table-tennis balls, extensively damaging crops.

Greymouth was also hit by a tornado in March 2005, which passed through the town causing millions of dollars of damage and injuring several people.

Tornadoes here do not attain the scale of those in the United States' midwest, mainly because the temperature contrasts which form the thunder clouds are not as strong. Despite that, wind speeds in New Zealand tornadoes can easily exceed 200km/h, but the tornadoes are generally short-lived, lasting only 10 to 15 minutes and carving a path of damage only tens of metres wide.

Auckland can expect an average of up to two tornadoes, or waterspouts, each year, but research shows damaging ones only occur once every few years.

Albany was also hit by a tornado in May 1991, lifting roofs from homes, flattening a small church and killing a man driving a bulldozer, the first known death in New Zealand from such a storm.

Auckland buildings and power lines were also damaged in tornadoes in August 1980, May 1982, September 1986, August 1992 and March 1997.

In August 2004 a tornado swept across Taranaki uprooting trees and destroying a house near Waitara, killing its two occupants.

New Zealand's worst tornado struck Frankton and Hamilton in August 1948, killing three, injuring dozens and destroying 150 houses.

Do you know anyone caught up in this afternoon's deadly Albany tornado? email reporters@press.co.nz


- © Fairfax NZ News 03/05/2011