Harrismith Tornado Sightings Leave Residents on Edge, Weather Expert Shares Insights

• Harrismith residents headed online to report seeing a tornado in their area on Wednesday, 13 November 2024
• Reactions to the sightings flooded the Severe Weather and Information Centre SA Facebook page
• One Facebook user noted seeing a rotating column twice in the same day after recent thunderstorms
• Retired SA Weather Service consultant in Gqeberha, Garth Sampson, offered Briefly News an opinion

HARRISMITH — In the past few days, a tornado reportedly made landfall in Harrismith in the KZN, causing residents to take notice of the weather event.

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

Tornado sightings appear in Harrismith

It is unclear which area or the time the tornado struck after a user, Sphamandla Sphah Dube, a Severe Weather and Information Centre SA group member posted the image on Wednesday afternoon, 13 November 2024.

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The group comprises nearly 416,000 members.

Since it was posted, the photo has attracted a flood of alarmed reactions from many curious about tornado sightings.

One user, Lena De Beer Trichardt, ventured:

"Harrismith? Dates 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 one."

While Brian Kritzinger observed:

"We see too [many] tornadoes in this country; we should ban them."

Meanwhile, Ginnie Fry said the tornado was the second reported that day.

Briefly News contacted Garth Sampson, a retired SA Weather Service (SAWS) consultant based in Gqeberha, for an expert opinion.

The Weather Guru, who now operates a private weather advisory firm, WG and Associates, said it was more than likely the event happened in SA.

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"I've no way of telling if it is Harrismith, but it appears to be in SA because of the shacks and the way the power lines are constructed," he said.

"Is it a tornado? Yes, it is, but I can't judge the strength. If it didn't touch the ground, it's either a tornado or a funnel cloud."

Sampson said severe thunderstorms in the area could have made a tornado or funnel cloud possible, and the only way to ascertain its force was to seek where it touched down.

Rainfall 'significant event' for the Bay

In related news, Briefly News reported that a heavy downpour battered Nelson Mandela Bay as flash floods wreaked havoc, causing week-long water and power disruptions from Sunday, 20 October 2024.

This saw thousands of residents, notably in township areas in Gqeberha and Kariega, evacuated from their homes and placed in shelters, with the humanitarian non-profit Gift of the Givers spearheading aid efforts.

Source: Briefly News