On the afternoon of 4 November 1973, intense thunderstorms built up west of Brisbane. One particularly active storm generated several funnel clouds, at least one of which touched down as a strong tornado west of the city. At one house in its path only the water pipes remained! The tornado continued through Brisbane’s western and southern suburbs, damaging nearly 1,400 buildings. No deaths occurred, but many were injured. This tornado had a path length of 51km, with peak wind-speeds estimated at over 250km/h; however American meteorologists studying the event concluded that the wind-speeds could have topped 300km/h. This tornado remains the most damaging in Australia to date. (© Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2009, Bureau of Meteorology (ABN 92 637 533 532))
When I was a kid we lived at Rainworth in Brisbane near the western suburbs, my dad was working around Jindalee and Kenmore areas building new homes, he told me of this tornado that hit the western suburbs. While driving home, he saw how it had chopped all the tops of the trees off along the western freeway, Dad reckoned it was like someone had a giant mower and mowed a path right through the area. I was always fascinated about that one.
I finally tracked down old footage by someone with an 8mm camera.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=HURlLa1CFWojust a nostalgic moment.
