Tornado wrecks farm shed

JONATHAN CAMERON/Manawatu Standard

DEVASTATING FORCE: Farm worker Jordan Brock stands among the wreckage of a barn that was destroyed by a tornado.

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Sheets of metal and large wooden stakes were tossed 200 metres through the air by a tornado that destroyed a shed on a Manawatu farm.

It tore through a 500-cow dairy farm on the outskirts of Palmerston North, near Newbury, about 2.45pm on Tuesday.

Farm manager Joe Gilmore was in the milking shed, but went outside to investigate when he heard a loud, rumbling sound.

He could not believe his eyes when he saw a swirling column of dust and debris, about 200m high, in front of him.

"It looked like pieces of paper flying around in the air but it was sheets of iron," he said.

"I saw it all fluffing about in the air."

Moving east, the tornado ripped apart a barn used to hold sick cows, and sent chunks of wood and metal flying into a neighbouring field.

No cows were harmed.

The force of the tornado was powerful enough to harpoon a 5m-long wooden pole about 1.5m into the ground.

Debris was found in a creek about 200m away from the barn.

Mr Gilmore said the tornado lasted about four minutes, before it disappeared over neighbouring farmland.

"I actually watched them on Sky [TV] one night and thought, `Gee, I'd like to see one of them'," Mr Gilmore said.

"You'd never ever see anything like that again unless you were in America."

Farm worker Jordan Brock described the tornado as a big mushroom cloud that picked things up.

"It didn't look like as big as what you'd see on the TV but it was big enough. It just made a big rumble, it sort of sounded like thunder."

Mr Brock was more surprised than scared by the force of nature.

"This was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. We didn't even notice the shed was gone at first. We came past and said, `F..., the shed's been ripped to pieces'."

Some cows had huddled into a far corner of a paddock when the tornado came through, he said.

"They seemed to know it was coming."

MetService had not received any tornado reports when contacted by the Manawatu Standard, but severe weather forecaster Erick Brenstrum said tornados generally occurred during thunderstorms. There were thunderclouds in Manawatu yesterday, but few on Tuesday.

"There were no lightning strikes in that area but that doesn't mean nothing happened."

Mr Brenstrum said it might have been a tornado, a whirlwind [baby tornado] or a downburst – a rain-cooled burst of air that sends strong winds in all directions after hitting the ground.

Most New Zealand tornados occur in the east of the South Island, or the west of the North Island.