Mini tornado
 

On xmas day around midday, a mini ?? tornado went through Mackay and uprooted trees and overturned a couple of moored boats. There has been a lot of rain and some localised flooding which is normal for this place (gives the local bogans a wash they'd not get other wise) but a tornado ffs.:ohmy: Areas around mackay, Eungella got 607mm, Clarke range got 730mm and Finch Hatton got a mere 460mm. I dont know what the town got and i dont give a flying f*** just as long it stayed away from my front door. We spent xmas day in darkness, eating a red rooster and playing scrabble, as enjoyable as it was.
The woman 2 doors up, went away for her xmas dinner and when she returned the next day, her lovely big silver saloon car had been inundated with water making it a write-off. She had only parked it outside at the kerb. My my, she should have known better.

Anyway, my point is that Mackay council couldn't run a raffle. They spend copious amounts of rate payers money (highest in Qld I believe) on shitty artwork dotted around the town to try and entice tourists when all along, the drainage system in the town is f**ked. I would suggest that none of the over-payed councillors live on a street where the drains dont work or they would be fixed pronto. So if anybody is planning on moving to Mackay,,,DONT. Its an overpriced, shit hole infested with local rednecks who care more about their tattoos than their cleanliness....Feel free to comment or ask questions about this small town trying hard and failing to kid itself on, that its a city.:frown:

Re: Mini tornado
 

so...you had a good christmas then:lol:

only kidding mate, hope you get your drainage sorted and I guess you won't be putting up for mayor this year then:ohmy::unsure:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Time you moved out of there....... I had this horrible sinking feeling when we got the reports of a "weather event" going through there, I just kept thinking "please God not Framac again :blink"

Re: Mini tornado
 

maybe we should all club together and buy framac a house boat mate

Can we make one out of empty bottles/cans:thumbsup:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Cheers Watty. Hopefully we should out of here sooner rather than later:thumbup:

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Cheers Pol. It threatened but didnt do any damage. Ma mates visiting at end of march then anytime after that we should be leaving.:thumbup:

Re: Mini tornado
 

aye, like Polly said - maybe time to move to a safer place hey mate:thumbup:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Could be a good decision I reckon :thumbup:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Don't ****** come to CAIRNS........I'm worried it'll follow you up. :D

Re: Mini tornado
 

This has been my 5th xmas here in Aus and my 1st xmas not in Mackay and i must say i am glad ;)

Keep well Framac and take care :thumbup:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Uck yer a big lassies bloose. :p

- so ye gonnae leave yer bogan mobile behind when ye make the big move then? :D

Re: Mini tornado
 

There is no such thing as a 'mini' tornado. It is either a tornado or it isn't. Severe thunderstorms can produce damaging winds without rotation, therefore non-tornadic.

Re: Mini tornado
 

I was under the impression there was such things as wee tornado's and big tornado's, hence the meaning of a mini tornado.

Re: Mini tornado
 

and when does a wee one become a big one? Is there a tornadometer:blink:

Re: Mini tornado
 

and if not, we might be onto summit! :thumbsup:

Re: Mini tornado
 

I invent it, you sell it and Polly does the TV ads:lol:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Done! :D

Re: Mini tornado
 

just make sure she doesn't sneak in any chipmonks or dwarfs. It's a three way split only:sneaky:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Hey, I need my publicity team! They both look better on camera than I do :rofl:

Re: Mini tornado
 

yeh, but you only ever see the chipmunk - although we could get the dwarf a highchair:lol:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Tornadoes according to Wikipedia - lots of good info there

A tornado is defined as a violently rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. - that link is from a US met site, but is better than most of the explanations on the BoM site :thumbup:

Many weather phenomena are described as tornadoes when in fact they aren't - the Microburst that hit The Gap in Brisbane a few years back was often wrongly referred to as a tornado, and I took calls this week regarding reports of a tornado near Mackay (not the event mentioned by Framac) - turned out to be just a very strong (possibly 100km/hr) gust of wind hitting a building at the wrong angle thus damaging it. People will often call events like that mini-tornadoes as it conveys the impression to others of what actually happened, even if technically its not 100% correct :)

For measuring them there is the Fujita Scale and the Enhanced Fujita Scale - various others exist, but Fujita/Enhanced Fujita is the one most often referred to.

Scale Estimated wind speed* Potential damage

F0 40–72 mph 64–116km/h Minor damage. Some damage to chimneys; branches broken off trees; shallow-rooted trees pushed over; sign boards damaged.
F1 73–112 mph 117–180km/h Moderate damage. The lower limit is the beginning of hurricane wind speed; peels surface off roofs; mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned; moving autos pushed off the roads; attached garages may be destroyed.
F2 113–157 mph 181–253km/h Considerable damage. Roofs torn off frame houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars overturned; large trees snapped or uprooted; highrise windows broken and blown in; light-object missiles generated
F3 158–206 mph 254–332km/h Critical damage. Roofs and some walls torn off well-constructed houses; most trees in forest uprooted; skyscrapers twisted and deformed with massive destruction of exteriors; heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown.
F4 207–260 mph 333–418km/h Severe damage. Well-constructed houses leveled; structures with weak foundations blown away some distance; trains overturned; cars thrown and large missiles generated. Skyscrapers and highrises toppled and destroyed.
F5 261–318 mph 419–512km/h Devastating damage. Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 m (109 yd); trees debarked; steel reinforced concrete structures badly damaged.

Re: Mini tornado
 

can I read it when I've sobered up miss:unsure:

actually, maybe not:lol:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Damn it - so no room for an invention then? :frown::D

Re: Mini tornado
 

I have some nice purple cushions to put on the seat and raise him up a little :thumbup:

I'm just addicted :cool:

Noooo, might have to think again! Although if you decided to measure the levels of tornado slightly differently and came up with a new naming scheme you might capture the imagination and get famous for it.
There's one called the Torro Scale which was developed in the UK as an off-shoot of the Beaufort Scale (thats what they use for measuring gales - Force 5, Force 6 etc). Not used as widely as Fujita but it is referred to at times.
If you look at Fujita, they describe an F5 as 419–512km/h Devastating damage. Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and carried considerable distances to disintegrate. Torro uses T10, 433 - 482 km/h,Entire frame houses and similar buildings lifted bodily from foundations and carried some distances.. Similar but different :ohmy::sneaky:

So you could invent the SC69 as the top of the scale, washing scattered to adjacent continents, arriving immigrants blown back to point of departure, bridges collapsed burying trolls, unopened bottles shattered, dwarves blown into cyber-space, clothes ripped from hunky male bodies..........might catch on, you never know! :thumbsup:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Let's face it, who gives a toss what it was, the people involved just know that they had some bloody heavy weather and destruction followed.

Re: Mini tornado
 

Naw, thats part o my syche noo.:p

Re: Mini tornado
 

and that's why you're passionate & good at it mate:thumbup:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Angie drove past the harbour rd today (scene of the tornado) and said there were roofs off houses and a hotel and every tree for about 200 yards had been snapped like twigs.:blink:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Passionate definitely:wub: I'll leave others to judge whether I'm good at it :o though I certainly couldn't try any harder!

Looks like its being referred to as a "whirlwind" originating in a storm cell. Yes, centred in the Harbour road area, lines down, fences down, iron off roofs. Sound like it was a very small area affected, fortunately.

Re: Mini tornado
 

Na, nae whirlwind, nae tornado, and nae cyclone - it wiz Franny skitin aboot in his bogan mobile. :lol:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Win news called it a mini tornado tonight and I drove by today to do my nosy and it was a small area about 200 yards that got hit. A woman who works with Angie got caught in it and she said the noise was deafening and she closed her eyes as she thought her number was up. What folllowed was a deafening silence with no birds singing or squeaking. Spooky.:blink:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Bugger i thought this thread was about my return to oz:p

Re: Mini tornado
 

Nasty business whatever its called - its only technical differences between the names, and I'd rather not be anywhere near one of them. I'd read that it was only a very small area that copped the brunt of it - thank goodness.

Amazes me looking at stuff on twitter and facebook of these guys - mainly in the USA - who actually chase tornadoes. Some of the ones in the US go for 100s of km and are absolutely deadly, yet people want to follow them and experience them. Abosultely bonkers! :scaredhair:

Re: Mini tornado
 

Oh how apt :rofl:

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mate travelled to Mackay for a holiday took one look and travelled all the way back home 10 hours in total.........hated it

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I've heard its pretty dire in places, but didn't realise it was THAT bad :blink:

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we hated it...people were so rude and just wanted your money so we said sod it...spent 4 nights on Great Keppel instead...awesome

Re: Mini tornado
 

Thats supposed to be gorgeous, friend of mine from Hobart spent a lot of holidays over there and loved it.

Re: Mini tornado
 

i was just thinkin the same :lol: