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Home » Third Tornado Hits South Africa in November – Utrecht

Third Tornado Hits South Africa in November – Utrecht

A third tornado has been confirmed to have hit South Africa this month, again in KwaZulu-Natal. The tornado struck on Friday evening, 22 November, with the damaging winds tearing through the Utrecht area. “The South African Weather Service (SAWS) can confirm that a tornado did occur in the Utrecht area in KwaZulu-Natal…” said the country’s […]

By SAPeople
23-11-19 13:13
in Eish!
tornado south africa utrecht

A third tornado has been confirmed to have hit South Africa this month, again in KwaZulu-Natal. The tornado struck on Friday evening, 22 November, with the damaging winds tearing through the Utrecht area.

“The South African Weather Service (SAWS) can confirm that a tornado did occur in the Utrecht area in KwaZulu-Natal…” said the country’s weather service.

SAWS said in a media statement on their website that severe thunderstorms lashed the north-western parts of KZN and south-eastern parts of Mpumalanga last night, and that radar signatures suggest a tornado and possibly even two.

They defined a tornado as a “rotating column of air extending from the cloud base of a cumuliform cloud and is in contact with the ground. These vortices can result in extensive damages and loss of life.”

With criticism levelled at the weather service for confirming after the fact rather than warning of the tornado beforehand, SAWS pointed out that a severe thunderstorm warning (with damaging winds and hail) was issued at 19h30 on Friday for the Amajuba and uMzinyathi Districts, which was then forecast to move to Zululand.

SAWS said the severe storm developed between Newcastle and Dundee before changing its path north-east in the direction of Utrecht. They confirmed that “specific radar signatures suggested that tornadic activity was present”.

SAWS said the storm then moved through the Utrecht area in a northerly/north-easterly direction and weakened about 20km north of Utrecht… before redeveloping with large amounts of hail in parts of Mkhondo (Piet Retief) area around midnight, causing damage to property.

SAWS said radar signatures suggest there was another possible  tornado in the area… but there’s been no ground observations to confirm this.

SAWS thanked one social media user who pointed out that even in the USA in ‘tornado valley’, “they can only issue a warning a maximum of 20 minutes prior to a ‘possible’ tornado. This with all their sophisticated equipment.”

This month a tornado also hit the New Hanover area in KZN, leaving hundreds homeless, and another tornado was spotted over Bergville.

On Wednesday afternoon ‘tornadic’ shaped vortices were seen between Delmas and Bapsfontein. Not to be confused with tornadoes or landspouts, these were ‘gustnadoes’!

SAWS says gustnadoes are a “very specific type of dust devil but instead of developing in mostly clear conditions, these vortices develop along a gustfront of a thunderstorm as is the case of (Wednesday’s) images and videos.”

gustnadoes south africa
SAWS screenshot of the ‘gustnadoes’.

Storms also hit other parts of the country last night, with one learner posting this photo on Saturday morning showing the damage at his school in Rustenburg in Magong Village:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2601909616756554&set=p.2601909616756554&type=3&theater

The weather service has issued alerts for today (Sat 23 Nov): “Severe thunderstorms are expected today (Saturday) over the eastern parts of North West province, eastern Free State, in places over KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and southern Limpopo from the afternoon.”