Vryheid ‘twister’ raises questions

Published Nov 25, 2014

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Durban - What started as a regular day for a Ladysmith teen turned into an afternoon of storm chasing, after he was alerted about an unusual funnel-shaped cloud touching ground near his campsite.

Nathon Viljoen, 17, a Pionier High School matric pupil, told the Daily News on Monday that he had been at a prefects camp at Goedgeloof Farm near Bloedrivier Poort about 28km from Vryheid where he goes to school.

“I was inside the boys’ dorm when I heard shouting from outside. I went to investigate and that’s when I saw the tornado. I haven’t seen anything like it before,” he said.

While most of his classmates ran in the opposite direction to get away from the “twister”, Viljoen, his friend Dijan du Plooy and a few others, grabbed their phones and braved the heavy winds and ran towards the tornado.

“It was actually very exciting. I’m someone who loves adventure so I wanted to get closer,” he said.

“You don’t see things like this every day so I wanted to get to it. I was curious.”

He said the storm appeared slow-moving at first, but speeded up as it began to dissipate. “It lasted around 15 minutes and then it was gone.”

He said the only other serious weather-related incident he had witnessed was the hailstorm in Ladysmith in 2012, when more than 300 families were left without roofs after their homes were damaged by the huge icy stones, some bigger than tennis balls.

Danielle Viljoen, Nathon’s mother, said that many people had doubted her son’s version of events.

“But it happened. He has the pictures to prove it.”

Asked about her son’s actions on Saturday, she said she had been “quite worried” but not surprised. “I’m just glad nobody was injured and there was no serious damage.”

Many other people in the area also shared their pictures and videos via social media.

Air quality specialist, Lisa Ramsay, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal said that tornadoes, though rare in the province, occurred in inland areas.

“They tend to precede a storm and bring strong winds. The area is usually warm before the tornado strikes. While I can’t say with certainty that this was a tornado, it is a possibility for sure. I would have to study meteorological charts to give a definitive answer.”

Meanwhile Stacy Colborne, forecaster at the SA Weather Service Durban offices, said that none of their systems had picked up any weather anomalies.

“I’m not saying it didn’t happen or that it’s a hoax but, at this stage, I don’t have data to say it happened for sure.”

Tornado fact sheet:

* Several severe weather phenomena often accompany thundershowers, including tornadoes.

* In localised consequences, they can be the most destructive and feared of all atmospheric phenomena.

* They are associated with intense thermal instability and usually rotate cyclonically at great speeds, sucking up objects before throwing centrifugally outward from the vortex funnel in a devastating rain of debris.

* They occur relatively rarely in southern Africa.

* In South Africa, they occur in Gauteng, Free State and KZN (from Pietermaritzburg to Ladysmith).

* Most events occur in mid-summer from November to January – late afternoon or early evening.

Daily News

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