Waterspout sighting on North Shore 'crazy'

Tuesday, 20 November 2018

A waterspout and lightning were seen on Auckland's North Shore on Tuesday afternoon.

Waterspouts and lightning have been seen off the coast of an Auckland beach.

Madison Bowker sighted the spouts, at Torbay on the North Shore, from outside her lounge window on Tuesday evening and said they were 'crazy' to watch.

'I'd never seen a tornado, or a water tornado, before, so I thought it was so cool,' Bowker said.

She said one of the waterspouts disappeared quickly, but another formed and lasted for about five minutes before disappearing.

'It was quite crazy to see, it was so weird,' she said.

Multiple waterspouts were sighted on the North Shore on Tuesday evening.

Charlotte de L'Isle said there were four spouts overall, as well as thunder and lightning.

'It was quite incredible seeing four spouts one after the other,' she said.

Lightning was also spotted on Tuesday evening.

De L'Isle said she saw the spouts about 6.10pm and they had all disappeared within 20 minutes.

MetService forecaster Allister Gorman said the waterspouts were not a surprise, given the thunderstorm that lashed much of the country on Tuesday.

Gorman said the spouts were generally rotating air that got drawn up into the thunderstorm.

'Because it's over water, it picks up spray from the water itself, so you can see it and it becomes more visible.'

He said waterspouts had also been seen near Tauranga and New Plymouth earlier on Tuesday.