What happened that day?
See historic events for any day of the year by entering the date below. Why not try your birthday?
Kiwi of the Week
Today in History
25 August
1948 Killer twister hits Frankton
Three people were killed and 80 injured. About 150 houses were wrecked or badly damaged in what remains New Zealand's deadliest recorded tornado. Damage was estimated at more than £1 million (over $63 million in today's money).
Cars were smashed, concrete telephone poles snapped and trees were torn up during the ten minutes that the tornado cut a path 100 to 200 metres wide through Frankton on the outskirts of Hamilton. The tornado lifted as it reached the Hamilton CBD before landing again in Hamilton East. Here more trees were uprooted and two more houses damaged before it headed out of the city towards Tamahere.
The tornado picked up one house and turned it around before dropping it across the street. The occupants – a woman and her two children – amazingly escaped unharmed.
According to the Metservice the western side of the North Island (from Auckland and Waikato down to the Kapiti Coast) is the second most likely area to get tornadoes, after Westland. On average there are over 30 tornadoes a year in New Zealand. Most are relatively small and only about a third of them occur near people and are reported.
The Frankton
tornado was rated at F2 on the Fujita scale, a standard six-point scale used
for rating the intensity of a tornado
or other severe wind. At F2 wind
speeds are between 150-200kmh.
Image: view of Keddell Street (Hamilton Public Libraries)
