Australian Severe Weather Forum

I flew into Adelaide this morning for a work trip and it was nice and bumpy. Just watching the news and they have reported what was described as a mini cyclone that has caused substantial damage to the Port Noarlunga oval around 1:30 today. Pictures showed quite severe damage to the structure and lights. A truck was also blown over on South Road and reports of cars being lifted.

It will be interesting to see what is in the local paper tomorrow. It was quite squally this afternoon here, I was further north but we did have one quite heavy rain period with a bit of wind. The areas affected are close to the coast so it is always possible it was a waterspout that made land.

The good thing is that Adelaide has doppler radar so if someone who knows how can put together a loop for around 1:30 this afternoon it might be quite interesting.

Radar archives are available. Load this link then have a look at the Doppler too which shows quite a strong feature over the location hit at 2pm:

See : 128km Radar Loop for Adelaide (Buckland Park), 00:00 11/07/2009 to 06:00 11/07/2009 UTC

Thanks Michael. And yes, I should have written tornado not cyclone in the original topic :-) Sucked in by the news.

They showed some more pictures at the end of the bulletin, sheets of corrugated iron wrapped around the top of light poles and considerable damage to a structure, though it may have been something that was half built to start with and therefore looking worse than the actual storm damage. Going to watch the ABC now to see if they have more.

EDIT: Might drive down there in the morning and see if I can get a feel for how wide the damage path is.

2ND EDIT: The ABC has reported it as a tornado and shows cars blown into each other as well as quite severe damage to structures at the ground. It reportedly lasted less than a minute with people struggling to stand against it and a piece of tin blown across the ground injuring one person. 5 houses in the area were also damaged.

Some of the local pager messages from the time on the GRN

13:39:41   11-07-09   MFS: *CFSRES INC076 11/07/09 13:37,RESPOND STORM DAMAGE,19A COMMERCIAL RD,PORT NOARLUNGA SOUTH MAP 195 H 3,ROOF OFF HOUSE - FRANK 83271328 - P2,NOA029

13:41:24   11-07-09   MFS: *CFSRES INC077 11/07/09 13:40,RESPOND STORM DAMAGE,203 MAIN RD,MCLAREN VALE MAP 207 B 12 TG132,SHOP 1 MENSWARE STORE SALLY 8323 8299,P2,STT020 MCLV00

13:45:05   11-07-09   CALL OUT DUTY CREW, REPORT TO UNIT REGARDS IAN SES Noarlunga Info

13:50:05   11-07-09   MFS: *CFSRES INC078 11/07/09 13:48,RESPOND Flooding/Salvage,33 GRIFFITHS DR,MOANA MAP 205 H 5,WATER LAPPING UP AGAINST HOUSE - MICHELL,E 83860498 P3,NOA029

13:53:39   11-07-09   MFS: FROM SAPOL REQ MORE SES CREWS AT THE NOARLUNGA OVAL

Here is everyones favourite saying coming up in the following article regarding the tornado that Richary has reported on, ( be of interest to see what or if they rate it on the EF scale, or could it be a gustnado? )

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25768082-662,00.html

By Kate Kyriacou

July 12, 2009 12:01am

    * Mini-tornado rips through suburb
    * Picks up cars, destroys buildings
    * Football players injured
    * In pictures: See the path of destruction

A MINI-tornado has wreaked havoc on a suburban Aussie rules football ground in South Australia, pelting players with debris as it picked up cars and tore apart buildings, the Sunday Mail reports.

Several players were taken to hospital after sheet metal and debris from a glasshouse showered the Port Noarlunga oval, 30km south of  Adelaide.

The storm hit in the early afternoon as the Port Noarlunga versus Reynella match approached half time.

Up to a dozen cars were towed from the ground after they were pushed across the ground by fierce winds and battered by metal from nearby buildings.

Port Noarlunga Football Club runner Todd Stokes said it will be several weeks before the ground can be used again.

"There’s glass everywhere on the field,’’ he said.

"The coaches’ box has been ripped apart.

"There used to be a shed on the hill and now there is nothing.

"One car – a Magna – got pushed 20m by the wind.’’

A State Emergency Services spokeswoman said 15 volunteers spent several hours cleaning up the mess, including securing several houses that lost their roofs.

These are the images that have come up for the tornado in Adelaide yesterday.

The full gallery can be found at http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,22613,5058618-5014156,00.html   the first few photos classify it as a "mini cyclone" then from image 7 they have it titled as mini tornado.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Mark Anolak confirmed the oval was struck by a winter tornado. He said the extent of the damage suggested it was hit by 100-150km/h winds.
(from http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/836538/tornado-terrifies-footy-players-and-fans)

Also a photo of the storm approaching the coast, as photographed by Chris on WZ forums, showing a funnel: http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/cmhandler/101_1794.jpg

I am just back from the location and the damage trail is certainly narrow. Probably only 20-25m wide. I also spoke to a local who witnessed it and he confirmed that everything was swirling around. The main damage is from a shed/glasshouse that has been demolished with sheet metal spread across the oval and also visible in a lake further away. Plotting on the mapping software would suggest it has been carried about 300m.  Damage to houses is mostly minor roof damage.

The area is 6-700m inland, separated from the coast by an estuary and dunes. I walked down the dunes and there is no sign of any damage there so touchdown must have been on the ridge where the damage occurred, and straight across the middle of the oval. and off the other side where trees have been knocked down. Photos and maps to come later tonight.

The ABC report listed here:

Tornado wreaks havoc on Port Noarlunga football oval

OK, some pics from today. The Blue area on the map is roughly where damage was observed, the yellow area is where debris was spotted.

Hi everybody,
Here's a selection of pictures taken just before, and during Saturdays Port Noarlunga cell just under 1km south of the Port Noarlunga oval.
The last one is a funnel cloud that only organized its self like that for just over 30 seconds, however that distended aria was clearly visible several minuets before the photo and still distended when it crossed the coast. The first picture is a second aria of the storm that slipped just to the south of us that seemed to have a higher precipitation rate than what was north of us. Where we where had several minutes of very intense rain that eroded a great deal of clay from the cliff face into the water as seen in picture four, and pictures two and three are of the storm as it crossed the shore line looking north.

Another link with story about asbestos dangers across the oval, and a personal account from one of the injury victims.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25777972-2682,00.html

A photo (albeit not a great one) has turned up of possibly the tornado in action over the oval...

From the July BOM climate summary for Adelaide:

A small supercell spawned a significant tornado in the southern Adelaide suburb of Port Noarlunga on 11 July. The tornado damage track was 2.7 km long. At the western end, the tornado damaged five houses, demolished a shed, shifted cars, and hurled iron and glass debris across an oval during a football match. One person on the oval was injured. Substantial tree damage occurred along the eastern section of the track. Damage was rated to be at the high end of category F1 or possibly the low end of category F2 on the Fujita tornado category scale.

Teckert,


This was the rating I gave for the Dunoon tornado 26th October 2007 .

Who rated the tornado Teckert? I guess the fast moving motion of the parent storm provided sufficient differential damage between one side of the path as compared to the other. How fast was the storm moving based on radar?

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

Someone from SA BOM severe weather wouldve rated it I guess...

Radar loop as posted by Michael: http://www.theweatherchaser.com/radar-loop/IDR643-adelaide-buckland-park/2009-07-11-00/2009-07-11-06