Topic: A TORNADO ... IN AUSTRALIA!!

[mackay]

Yeah the topic name says it all, a quite beach side town of Lennox Head in New South Wales was struck by a Tornado on Thursday morning at about 7:30am local time during a Severe Storm.

A Severe Thunderstorm Warning with possible large hailstones, flash flooding and waterspouts was released earlier that morning.

The tornado formed over land north of the area then went out to sea and came back in right on the town.

The nearest weather station at Ballina Airport (6km SW of Lennox Head) recorded 170mm (6.69") of rain that morning but only had a maximum wind gust of 65km/hr (40 mph).

The local news report of the tornado can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmwH5IL7410

[mackay]

You can also watch another news report on it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEFPFqD8nv8&NR=1

[mackay]

Oh and another thing i forgot to mention is that it rated a F1 to F2 on the Fujita tornado scale

[WeatherHost]

I take it that's uncommon?  I thought I read somewhere that they could form in most temperate climates where air masses collide.

[Weather Display]

Australia gets strong Storms (CB's)
(i.e large hail, strong microbursts, lots of lightning)
but they do not have the wind shear setup that the midwest of the USA have, and so tornadoes are not very commen

strong CB's in unstable conditions (e.g maritime flow) can form brief tornadoes that are what are known as landspouts (or waterspouts over water (as opposed to a tornado forming from a rotating CB (mesocyclone) (in fact waterspouts form under different conditions and often form from less intense CB's))

[mackay]

I take it that's uncommon?  I thought I read somewhere that they could form in most temperate climates where air masses collide.

Yes they are very uncommon, we do get a few waterspouts each year but we never actually get a tornado. Apparently this is the right time of year though Late Autumn into Early Winter.

The area where it hit had a Low Pressure System sitting right above it.