Video: Yesterday’s sightings believed to be landspout tornadoes
Hannes van den Bergh said there are many different types of tornadoes and believes that yesterday’s occurrence is classified as a landspout.
Yesterday’s sightings of tornadoes are believed to be landspouts, which the American National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) defines as a ‘non-supercell tornado’.
“A landspout is a tornado with a narrow, rope-like condensation funnel that forms while the thunderstorm cloud is still growing and there is no rotating updraft – the spinning motion originates near the ground.”
The Middelburg Observer spoke with Hannes van den Bergh, who works on a farm roughly 20km from the Middelburg Mall and resides at the Klipbank plots next to Arendsfontein.
“I was on my way home when I saw what I thought to be a whirlwind, little did I know it was going to get so big. I rushed to get my little boy from the garden as that thing kept getting bigger and bigger. We are used to many whirlwinds, this was not a whirlwind,” Van den Bergh said.
He said there are many different types of tornadoes and believes that yesterday’s occurrence is classified as a landspout, “Tornadoes are not just what you see happening in America on television.”
ALSO READ: Warning: Tornado sightings around Middelburg
Van den Bergh stated, “It rained hard with big drops that sounded like hail, but luckily, it was just the rain, and the wind was also blowing incredibly hard. It went around my neighbour’s home, then in front of our other neighbour’s house. It just became one big dust cloud, and then it dissipated.”
According to the NSSL, landspout tornadoes can produce damage classified as EF2 and EF3 Typical Observations, meaning the following:
• EF3 Typical Observations: “Severe damage. Entire stories of well-constructed houses destroyed; severe damage to large buildings such as shopping malls; trains overturned; trees debarked; heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown; structures with weak foundations blown away some distance.”
• EF2 Typical Observations: “Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-constructed houses; foundations of frame homes shifted; mobile homes destroyed; large trees snapped or uprooted; light-object missiles generated; cars lifted off the ground.”
* Definitions source: The Weather Channel.
You can see the videos Van den Bergh captured on his phone below:
@middelburgobserver Potential landspout tornadoes were spotted yesterday. Read more on the Middelburg Observer website.
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