Weather phenomenon lifts lockdown mood
An unusual weather phenomenon caused interest to swirl and busted lockdown boredom for those in Hawke's Bay this afternoon.
Hamish List, an ambulance officer, was driving into Havelock North from Duart Road when he saw what he believed to be a tornado.
Intrigued, he drove a little further to Te Aute Road to get a better picture.
While he has seen water spouts in the past, Hamish said it was "impressive" to see the tornado.
"It was very surprising as they are not very common," he told Hawke's Bay App. He said it looked like the tornado was over land out the back of Pakipaki.
NIWA principal scientist Chris Brandolino believed it was a tornado, but couldn't be certain.
"You can certainly see debris around the outside of the main funnel. It's either dust from land or spray from water," he said.
"We had active weather today with an unstable air mass, (basically this means the air is capable of rising, and sometimes strongly), so the atmosphere was ripe or primed for thunderstorms," he said.
"In essence, and oversimplifying things, to get a tornado there needs to be a thunderstorm and air changing direction with height."
Called shear, Chris says it provides the spin needed for a tornado or waterspout.
While tornados are not "unheard of" in New Zealand, they are "certainly unusual". Chris says the country gets about seven to 10 each year.
"They are more common in the Auckland area, west coast of South Island, and in particular in the Taranaki region, which is probably where they have, historically speaking, occurred most frequently."
