Tornado lifts Matamata boy George Jeffery 2 metres into air
Swirling leaves were the first sign of a tornado which swept Matamata Intermediate School pupil George Jeffrey into the air on Monday afternoon.
When George Jeffery came face-to-face with a tornado, he didn't know what hit him.
The Matamata Intermediate School pupil was leaving school when he was caught in the twister that made an appearance throughout the Waikato town on Monday afternoon.
The weather looked fine, he said, but then the wind picked up and took him with it.
Matamata mini-tornado survivor George Jeffrey recounts experience.
Foreboding signs of a tornado were there; MetService meteorologists said the day's weather patterns had all the ingredients for a small, localised twister.
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"I didn't know what hit me," George said. "It came out of nowhere.
A mini-tornado ripped through Matamata on Monday afternoon.
"I get whipped across the legs with leaves. I see my friend running behind a house and I turn around and I just get thrown across the pathway and I go about 2 metres in the air.
"When I go to get up, a trampoline almost goes on top of me."
The whole ordeal only took about 10 seconds, he said, but the confrontation left George with a bleeding knee and weeping sores on his shoulder, elbow and hip.
The tornado also hit this shed but missed the nearby house.
His friend, nearby road workers, and his mother's former boss came to his aid.
George, 13, said he was frightened by the incident, and underestimated the strength of the wind.
"It was spinning around and I thought it was going to be a mini one, but it ended up throwing me everywhere.
"I didn't expect it to happen. I thought it was just going to be strong winds hitting me.
"When I got lifted in the air, I didn't know what to do so I was just screaming. When I hit the ground, I got up as fast as I could and ran behind the house."
When he got home, George was in shock, and his mum Linda Burton was oblivious to the event.
She was told by witnesses that George was picked up by the inconspicuous tornado and thrown in the air.
She was told that her son narrowly avoided hitting a power pole.
The tornado followed a stormy weather warning, and prediction of a possible twister, from MetService on Monday morning.
The strongest of gusts were expected to hit early afternoon, with between 25 and 40mm of rain per hour, and all the ingredients for a small, localised tornado were there.
"Tornadoes are not very common in New Zealand, and the ones we do get are much smaller and cause less destruction than the big tornadoes we see over the plains in the United States of America which can be 1-4km wide," MetService meteorologist Lisa Murray said.
"To get a tornado you need a combination of very unstable atmosphere and low-level wind conditions conducive to setting up a tornado.
"[On Monday] the atmosphere over the Waikato region had all the ingredients needed to make a funnel cloud, which develops into a tornado if it touches the ground.
"These conditions can also cause very strong wind gusts from downbursts from severe thunderstorms which can also be very destructive and could have caused the damage reported."
Murray said that generally, wind gusts greater than 100kmh can be strong enough to knock people over.
Thunderstorms of this nature can also have downbursts of more than 90kmh.
"Although New Zealand tornadoes are on a much smaller scale they can still cause a lot damage or injury so people should seek shelter if they see one," Murray said.
"MetService forecast the risk of tornadoes so keep up to date with the forecast at MetService.com or on the MetService App."
The most common places for tornadoes to be reported in New Zealand is in the western coastal areas of the country, in particular the West Coast of the South Island, Taranaki and Auckland.
- Stuff
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