![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CP5F3GN7IJARTBJHGBLSO7KBIM.jpg\")
\nWhat looks to be someone\u2019s barbecue or outdoor furniture cover ended up on this Peace St rooftop. Photo \/ Whakat\u0101ne Beacon<\/p>\n
A freak tornado that has meteorologists intrigued appears to have struck central Whakat\u0101ne on Monday morning.<\/p>\n
Fences were bowled in the Peace St area and roofs and trees took a beating during the unexplained weather event.<\/p>\n
By the afternoon, Innes Gray had already concreted in three new fence posts to replace those blown over.<\/p>\n
Residents were given a fright as what they described as a tornado blew through streets and across people\u2019s backyards.<\/p>\n
Damage to property was reported by several residents in Peace St, Pohutu St, Bracken St and McGarvey Rd.<\/p>\n
Others living in different parts of these streets said they heard nothing.<\/p>\n
No injuries have been reported.<\/p>\n
Bracken St resident Carol Venner said the tornado came past her property just after 9.30am. She thought it might have approached her house from the north.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was inside and I heard a noise that sounded like a freight train coming up my driveway,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It became very dark and her patio furniture was flung around her section in different directions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe noise was so frightening. It only lasted a minute or so, then it was just still.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said neighbours had fences blown over and a garage roof on a Pohutu St home was lifted.<\/p>\n
\nWhat looks to be someone\u2019s barbecue or outdoor furniture cover ended up on this Peace St rooftop. Photo \/ Whakat\u0101ne Beacon<\/p>\n
Others reported damage to trees, a glasshouse and a gate blown off its hinges and seeing outdoor furniture lifted into the air.<\/p>\n
One Peace St resident described seeing a tornado moving along the street towards his house from the east, knocking down fences and bending large trees sideways.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw all the leaves on the road go spinning up into the air in a big spiral. It was an amazing sight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another resident arrived home from work in the afternoon to discover his internet connection wasn\u2019t working. On investigation he discovered the reinforced concrete-post fence his fibre connection was attached to had been snapped off at ground level.<\/p>\n
Pohutu St resident Diane Sanson said she had just come home from walking her dog when the surprise weather event struck, blowing her fence over onto her driveway.<\/p>\n
She said it was very scary, very dark and very loud.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very lucky that we weren\u2019t still out. A few minutes earlier, we had just been walking up that driveway,\u201d Sanson said.<\/p>\n
Gray, a Peace St resident, had his fence blown over, including three sturdy wood posts.<\/p>\n
Luckily, his building skills were up to scratch, allowing him to put the posts back in place within hours.<\/p>\n
![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/XYPQXEZH3BG2HIRRGXRGBSXJCQ.jpg\")
\nThis corrugated iron fence with steel reinforced concrete posts was one of the fences in Peace St to feel the force of the tornado. Photo \/ Whakat\u0101ne Beacon<\/p>\n
MetService meteorologist Braydon White said the reports of a tornado were very surprising to him because there was little on the MetService radar and weather station observations to explain such an occurrence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t expecting anything like that. We didn\u2019t have any thunderstorm risks out and those are really the drivers for tornadoes. You need those active convective systems that drive air moving up and down in the cloud. There could have been some very localised instability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a small [storm] cell on the radar that blows through around that time, so that does line up. It is relatively far from the radar so the resolution isn\u2019t the best and it sounds like this was such a small scale that it probably wouldn\u2019t pick anything up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their nearest weather station at Whakat\u0101ne Airport had a maximum gust of 22 knots at that time \u2013 about 30-40km\/h.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy best guess is that it was a little squall that has gone through creating this localised area of strong wind \u2013 possibly a downdraft from this collapsing cell. Without a photo or video I can\u2019t confirm that a tornado has taken place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very intriguing to me. I would be very interested to see any photos or video showing a tornado.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A freak tornado that has meteorologists intrigued appears to have struck central Whakat\u0101ne on Monday morning. Fences were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-358869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}