The destructive tornado which swept across Auckland's North Shore today killed one person, injured 14 others and left a trail of destruction from Albany to Glenfield.
While this is at the lower end of the scale compared to the type of tornadoes that have been ripping through the United States in recent weeks, it is still the largest tornado to hit New Zealand in several years.
"If the winds were strong enough to lift cars, they would probably be more than 200kmh and we just don't get events like this in New Zealand very often. Usually they are EF0 or 'mini-tornadoes.
Auckland Mayor Len Brown later told Campbell Live a man in his 30s had died, while other reports said he was found in the Albany Mega Centre carpark.
St John Ambulance northern region operations manager Murray Holt said a triage centre was set up at Albany shortly after the tornado swept through.
There's probably six or seven seriously damaged cars, and I saw cars flying off the ground about 30 metres in the air. They landed in car parks and some went through the old Placemaker's building."
The twister hit Albany, about 15km north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, just before 3pm, ripping roofs off houses and commercial buildings in teh suburb's commercial centre, uprooting trees and turning cars and a campervan on their sides.
Tornadoes were very rare in New Zealand because the land mass in much colder than tornado-prone areas like the southern US, Hickey said.
During May 1991, a tornado hit Albany causing roofing iron to be lifted from homes and the destruction of a small church on the south-western side of the village.
New Zealand's worst tornado hit Hamilton in 1948, killing three people, injuring 80 others and destroying more the 200 homes and businesses.
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