FREAK CYCLONES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 150, 17 February 1932, Page 2

FREAK CYCLONES

SWEEP ALL BEFORE THEM IN TERRIFIC FURY. SUB-TROPICAL STORMS. SYDNEY, Friday. Yesterday's tropical tornado, whose furious half hour cost Narromine (N.S.W.) about £10,000, and left several people homeless in the trail of general destruction, is known in vernacular meteorology as "the conjurer." He is famed — or ill-famed — for his many little tricks. Among the many known queer results of these storms, said the State Meteorologist (Mr. Mares) to-day were cases where straws had been driven through boards, laths through trees, and pieces of stick into plates of sheet-iron. An example of their spectacular side was provided when the Sonoma ran into the full fury of a tornado when 100 miles from Sydney late last night. A dazzling display of electrical phenomena; red, green and dark- j bluish flames, was witnessed just before lightning' struck the foremast, and, fortunately, only blistered the >paint. Green-Black Clouds. The storm that hit Narrowmine, however, was a pronounced tropical low pressure which had shifted from Queensland to New South Wales, says Mr. Mares. "They are usually experieneed in the hottest part of the day during the warm months, accompanied by a violent thunder-shower, usually by hail, with a squally wind and yiolent thunder and lightning. "When one of these disturbances is at hand, the clouds take an ominous greenish black colour and seem to rush together and whirl around with great violence. "Owing to the action of the air currents, a sort of trough is formed in the atmosphere, wjhere the air pressure is very low. "The wind tends to rush towards this spot, and a funnel formed of clouds wrapped about this air trough falls to the earth, smashing everything in its path. "The pressure inside the funnel has an explosive effect, and this, coupled with wind velocity, sweeps a cleai lane for about 1000 yards in diameter."