• Harrismith residents went online to report seeing a tornado in their area on Wednesday, November 13, 2024.
• The Severe Weather and Information Center SA has been inundated with reactions following people’s reports.
• A Facebook user noticed seeing a rotating column twice in the same day after recent storms.
• Garth Sampson, retired consultant with the SA Weather Service in Gqeberha, offered his views to Briefly News

HARRISMITH — In recent days, a tornado was reported to have made landfall in Harrismith in KZN, causing residents to become aware of the situation. weather report event.

A photo shared on Facebook shows a bright whitish-gray rotating column of air near an informal settlement.

Tornado sightings appear in Harrismith

It is unclear what area or time the natural event lasted after a user, Sphamandla Sphah Dube, a member of the Severe Weather and Information Center SA on Facebook, posted the image on Wednesday afternoon, November 13, 2024.

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The group has nearly 416,000 members.

Since its publication, the photo has sparked a flood of alarmed reactions from many curious about tornado sightings.

One user, Lena De Beer Trichardt, ventured:

“Harrismith? Meetings would be appreciated.”

Another user, Angelo Ricardo Hoorn, noted:

“Please tell us when this happened and credit the person who took the photo.”

An additional user, Babs Dion Stanley recalled:

“I remember the tornado that hit Harrismith in 1998, or was it 1997 – a bad tornado.”

While Brian Kritzinger observed:

“We also see (a lot of) tornadoes in this country; we should ban them.”

Meanwhile, Ginnie Fry said the tornado was the second reported that day. In brief News contacted Garth Sampson, a retired SA Weather Service (SAWS) consultant based in Gqeberhafor an expert opinion.

The Weather Guru, who now runs a private weather consultancy company, WG and Associates, said it was more than likely the weather event occurred in part of South Africa.

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“I have no way of knowing if it’s Harrismith, but it looks like it’s in South Africa because of the shacks and the way the power lines are built,” he said.

“Is it a tornado? Yes, it is, but I can’t judge the strength. If it didn’t hit the ground, it’s either a tornado or a funnel cloud.”

Sampson said severe thunderstorms in the area could have caused a tornado or funnel cloud, and the only way to determine its strength was to look for where it landed.

Precipitation is a “significant event” for the Bay

In related news, In brief News reported that a heavy downpour hit Nelson Mandela Bay as flash floods wreaked havoccausing water and electricity cuts for a week from Sunday October 20, 2024.

Thousands of residents, particularly in the townships of Gqeberha and Kariega, have been evacuated from their homes and placed in shelters, with the non-profit humanitarian organization Gift of the Givers spearheading aid efforts.

Source: In Brief News