Topic: Acknowledging tornadoes in Australia by Local Authorities

[Colin Maitland]

Since I was a kid growing up in Brisbane I was fascinated by the tornadoes that hit various parts and surrounding country. When I left school I worked in Ipswich for 18 months and witnessed some of the most devastating storms of 1985 and on. (Including tornadoes). Unfortunately I never carried a camera to photo these storms. Right up to know we have been hit by several tornadoes, but everyone I speak to seems to think that we do not get tornadoes in Australia.

I watched a documentary some years ago that proved that 10 % of the worlds tornadoes happen here in Queensland, yet the majority of the population are oblivious to the fact.

The local authorities do not want to admit that we do. I am a builder and I feel that the problem is they may not want to accept responsibility that they have known these facts and have not acted upon them. Most of our houses are not designed to take the impact of these storms. We do not build our houses with storms shelters ( although the house I built in Bray Park had the linen room designed as a storm shelter.) In a America they are designing there houses to take the impact of some of the lower graded Tornadoes, but so far in Queensland especially, ( Cyclones and storms,) we have done little. Our tie down methods if studied correctly would prove insufficient. There is talk that they may now, after the tornadoes that hit in November/ December, around The Gap and surrounding suburbs, ( I know everyone is saying it was a microburst)  look at changing our building code.

The big question is, how do we educate the public and prove to the Authorities the need for change? The storms are only going to get worst with the changing climate. How much evidence is needed? 

Hopefully some photos of a strom at my brother in laws place at dayboro in Qld in Dec 08. The storm went over the hill and hit Narangba and Cabolture.

[James]

Hi Coltan,

It's an interesting discussion you bring up.

I'm sure there are more tornadoes than what is reported in Australia due to the vast distance of unpopulated land, however how much more I am not sure on. What documentary was it that stated 10% of the worlds tornadoes are in QLD? That seems way too high however I am happy to be proven wrong. How did they record those and were they visual accounts or just damage reports.

The recent storms in QLD in NOV/Dec you mention (The GAP etc) were not tornadic but pure straight line winds. Microbursts from Storms can create some serious damage and are often mistaken by the public as tornado damage.

I still think the main point of your post is correct. Their needs to be more done with building standards but not just for tornadoes but microburst damage which is by far the more prevalent cause of damage in Australia. Is it something that needs to be taken up with a local government representative for more exposure?

James

[Colin Maitland]

G'day James,
thanks for the reply. It made me do some research.
I refer to the Storms as "THE GAP" because they are now famous.

I don't live far from The Gap, Arana Hills, Albany creek, Eatons Hill and Brendale. The path of the storm. The following Monday morning I took my wife for a drive and saw the devastation. The Jinker track looked like a Nuc had hit it. Thousands of trees and branches littered the street and surrounds. The trees had been twisted and snapped of halfway up the trunk. It followed a narrow path through there.
Down in Brendale, it hit Northside trusses and ripped of the awnings down one side, skipped a few sheds, twisted signs and the hit about 500 m up the road at torque ford, were we had to drop the car off, and sucked out there service doors. Just looked like the damage of a twister.
 
But some of the storms of that day and later the following days did form into tornadoes as noted by the
CYCLONE TESTING STATION
School of Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville
28 Nov 2008
Investigation of performance of housing, in Brisbane, following the storms
of 16 and 19 November 2008
Storm report.
The 19 November storm damage indicated a low category
tornado, (that one hit Paddington).

But the answer you gave made look up some more information and I found the above mentioned report. Hopefully they do a thorough investigation and design report.
The documentary was in the late 1990's and I think it was The Savage Planet series, but also, since looking up further information that fact about 10% of tornadoes in QLD may be a sensationalism on the part of the documentary, but it was enough to get me interested.

So thanks for your reply, it makes you dig deeper and find interesting facts.
Cheers

[Peter J]

Coltan,

I think if you watch the youtube videos posted in the forum related to the Gap storm, you can see that it was more cyclonic (straight line winds), than tornadic.

Cyclonic storms tend to happen more so in QLD, than tornadic ones, but i can be corrected by the moderators if they believe otherwise.

Still, the impact of such a storm could have been more devastating if the storm was tornadic, becuase IMO if this had been tornadic, damage could have been greater in the Gap, and I think more media reports o/seas would have appeared.

Big Pete

[Peter J]

I thought that this article from the BoM might clarify things a bit better about the "GAP" storm:

"SEQ Severe Thunderstorm and Microburst at The Gap

Queensland Regional Office

Amongst the severe thunderstorms that affected Southeast Queensland on 16 November 2008 was a destructive "microburst" observed at The Gap. Wikipedia describes a microburst as "a very localized column of sinking air, producing damaging divergent and straight-line winds at the surface that are similar to but distinguishable from tornadoes which generally have convergent damage". Large hailstones were also observed at several locations...."

"...Convective activity first started south of the NSW border. The first storms to cross the border propagated in a northeasterly direction causing some damage at Wonglepong, Canungra and Mt Tamborine. This storm later slowed near the coast and interacted with another storm that had also crossed the border from NSW, forming a new storm that then moved northwards from around Redbank Plains toward The Gap and subsequently the Sunshine Coast...

...A summary of damage caused by the severe thunderstorms of 16 November 2008 can be found at the Queensland Department of Emergency Services website ...

Big Pete

p.s. link for this info for futher pics and radar shots is:  http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/qld/cyclone/thunderstorms/16Nov2008/qldth20081116.shtml