1973 Brisbane, Australia Tornado

[levey1958]

the 16th November storm I had just turned 16 was working at a servo opposite Big W Kuraby , people were running into each other motorbikes all over the road from The Waywa corner motorbike shop and I got locked out tyre racks were up in the air and a large drinks fridge ended up on the roof of the Mobil .... I had a bad head cut as something had hit me when I ran to the toilets for cover it just came from no where .....

[omni99]

I was 10 years old, but remember this well, living at Moorooka. My mother had trouble closing the back door, due to the wind. It missed our house by 500 metres. No damage, but up the road was a different story! Tooheys Forest had a small strip where you could see the tornado went through... Thanks for the memory.

[SANHEDRIN666]

just gotta click ya heels and think happy thoughts

[mick69rowe]

haha roof tilers would have made alot of money that year! 

[TheJUNGLESURFER]

cool

[jessical12345678910]

what is the rating for this twister on the EF scale? is it a EF2???

[banner1835]

@jessical12345678910 That would be a 0 and yes there are 0's.

[TORNaDOE526]

WOW TIS TORN lOOks LIKE A GHOST!!!

[lancemckellar]

Forty three ppl have been killed by tornadoes in recorded history.

[Infinitesimalism]

@lancemckellar You mean in Australia? I believe that number is much more if including North America.

[lancemckellar]

@Infinitesimalism Yes in Australia...there was a severe tornado in NSW today actually.

[banner1835]

@lancemckellar Which countries history? The U.S. have over 500 ppl killed by tornados in two months.Things are settling down, we just had 60 tornados yesterday, fewer deaths.

[lancemckellar]

@banner1835 Australia

[JBrox56]

@banner1835 ya but we aren't talking about America hun this is Aus for you... Btw just found out that Brisbane is now the Thunderstorm capital of Aus COOL!

[OneCrayGuy89]

Wow... the sound of the wind is just haunting.

[jessical12345678910]

um.... my dad was in brizzy in 1973 november he told me there was NO tornado at all there was just floods and correction tornadoes don't happen in brizzy so this must be something else...

[meltdownunder]

um i guess your dad was drunk alot..outside of USA australia has the next most amount of tornados...as for floods in 1973?....correction..floods were 1974.check ya facts b4 flappin ya gums

[hawty0boy]

tornados do happen there just extremely rare in australia

[budgiebreder]

not super rare, about 20 a yea i think the statistic is... but yea nothing compared to the usa! one actually hit about 3 hrs south of brisibane about a year and a bit ago. is hit near a city called lismore in a more rural area called dunoon. look it up if you don't believe me. there have been others too one in sydney a while back. i'm not surprised at all that one once hit brisi

[hawty0boy]

im pretty sure its more then 20, i think its something like 300 tornados in australia each year! exept most of them arent very bad so there hard to capture on video, ive seen the one at dunoon captured by jimme degura i think his name is awesome!

[budgiebreder]

i looked it up back when that one hit dunoon. it was a "2" followed by at least 1 zero it could have been 200? i not sure as it was quite some time ago. anyway they are relatively hard to get on video but they are here

[hawty0boy]

yea

[budgiebreder]

also my dad has lived here his whole life and while driving around for work he's seen a few water-spouts (water-tornados) out over the ocean. mainly around byron bay (also known as cape byron) (most easterly point of aus for anyone who doesn't recognize the name)

[hawty0boy]

yeh hes so lucky to witness them, I just found out on wikipedea this is one of the worst tornados recorded in australian history with winds up to 300kph!!!

[budgiebreder]

sounds about right. my parents both remembered hearing about it and told me when that little one came near where i live. i've never seen any kind of tornado or water spout. the closest i get are those little wirly bird things that form around buildings. but i once saw a twister when i was 5 (i don't really remember so i don't count it) that was a mini one. did no damage at all it was that puny but yea i was out west at my aunt's farm so yea and it blew out in seconds so i only got a glimpse

[budgiebreder]

the next best i've seen is actually the same kind of "twister" about a month ago in my school's student car-park which is gravel/dirt 2 other people saw it (my friend and a staff member) anyway it didn't even damage a single car (unless you count a thin layer of dust) it was a fluke kind of thing ya know? no noise either. just a random wirling wind. so yea that's about as close as i get. lol both my worst twisters a fly could survive getting hit by! but this(video) yea. that was a bad one!

[hawty0boy]

lol :P

[JBofBrisbane]

@jessical12345678910 - I doubt your dad is an authority on severe weather in Australia. This event was widely reported in the papers and TV news at the time. Problem is, it was probably referred to as a "mini-tornado", by copy-writers that also were of the belief that "tornados don't happen in Australia".

[zacattack91293893893]

cool! i loved the big hail storm on nov 16th! cool vid!

[XXXXShelts]

We almost did a couple weeks back, its only just Summer now!!!! Nasty things will happen in Brizzy!!!

[budgiebreder]

you talking about the storm on the 16th of november? i remember it. i also remember the huge hailstorm that hit lismore and the tornado-producing storm that hit lismore and dunoon(tornado in dunoon). i witnessed all 3 storms and wow they were huge! i was on the outskirts of the tornado storm(in lismore). and right in the thick of the others. i was in brisbane by fluke visiting my sis and buying a formal dress. all 3 storms were HUGE!!!

[brizwx]

It's a bit hard to tell in this video, but you can see how fast the motions were on the ground which gives hints to the intensity. If the condensation funnel had extended all the way down, and had rain/hail not moistened the ground earlier, it would've looked like a more impressive tornado. In the Macgregor area, F3 damage occurred where several 2 storey houses had their top levels ripped off.

Something similar to that in 2008 would be extremely nasty!!

[CyrusNixes]

Hard to believe that little thing is the most destructive tornado in Australian history. It traveled 30 miles and damaged 2,000 homes - yet it looks like a weak little F-0 to me. Of course this could be either the beggining or end stage of its life.

[BretagneShrew]

the quality of the film was pretty bad. I'd say more like an F1. where did you hear this was the most destructive one in australian history?

[CyrusNixes]

Research November 1973 Brisbane tornado on google or wikipedia.

[zyphoid666]

Just did on wiki and there's no page for it. O.o

[russelltonrccenter]

Yes, Tornado Videos had no sound till 1981