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VIOLENTLY rotating columns of wind and water gave Port Macquarie residents an almost apocalyptic display of nature’s might on Monday.
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Though harmless, the trio of waterspouts and the coinciding spate of wild weather across the state, should serve as a “wake-up call”.
That’s the view of extreme weather analyst Martin Babakhan, who warns super storms and extreme weather events are set to increase in severity and frequency.
The meteorologist and conjoint lecturer from the University of Newcastle said data showed alarming changes in weather patterns were painting a concerning outlook for the future.
“We are going through an era of significant changes in climate conditions,” Mr Babakhan said. “The tropics are expanding and the ocean is warming much faster, the moisture content is increasing and the instability is becoming more severe.”
These conditions are typical proponents of weather phenomena like the water spouts witnessed on Monday.
An explosion of energy from a series of thunderstorms fed the three spinning vortexes as cool, unstable air passed over warmer waters off the local shoreline.
The incredible display sent some awe-inspired photographers like Henry Lundell on a snapping frenzy.
“I could see a spout developing and next thing before my eyes, the first one formed in the time it took to take my lens cap off,” he said.
But the extraordinary site, also reawakened memories of a much darker day in Port Macquarie’s history for the 62-year-old.
“It was in the early 60s, I was just a schoolboy and my friend’s father was blown off the roof he was working on when a water spout ripped right through Gordon Street,” recalled the long time Port Macquarie local.
At the time, Mr Lundell would have been just 11-years-old. His experience, he said, had engendered a healthy respect for natural phenomena.
The front page headline of the Port News on Tuesday, July 16, 1962 described the freight train of energy as the “Town’s Worst Disaster”.
Three men were left dead, during what Mr Babakhan said would have been a supercell, or extreme thunderstorm, event.
“Sweeping up Gordon Street, trees were uprooted in the old cemetery, light and phone poles were sent leaning groggily, TV aerials twisted and collapsed as though some giant hand had crushed them,” the Port News article said.
But it would not be the last water spout to wreak havoc in the local area. In 1985, another destructive vortex would batter the region causing millions of dollars in damage.
Since then, less than a handful of water spouts have created little more than exciting viewing along the local coastline.
But according to Mr Babakhan it is fair to expect plenty more to come.
All the signs are pointing to a time, he said, where extreme weather events like the supercell thunderstorms of the past, become a concerning part of the community’s future.