The tornado that devastated parts of Pretoria North last week has been confirmed as a landspout by the SA Weather Service.
Following a thorough analysis of data and the physical aftermath of the violent storm that hit Montana, north Pretoria on February 18 has been officially described as a landspout as opposed to a tornado.
Yesterday, the SA Weather Service (SAWS) said it reached the conclusion after conducting thorough analysis of the destructive weather event, which included visits to the site in the aftermath and a close study of high-resolution satellite images of the event, among other things.
The SAWS said it was “working tirelessly” to nowcast such “small-sided” events for the safety of the general public, which according to Wikipedia means describing “present weather conditions” or forecasting those that are “immediately expected”.
“A landspout develops over land and is generally smaller and weaker. A tornado, on the other hand, is a violent rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm and measures less than a few hundred meters in diameter, although some are larger than 1km,” the weather service explained.
“Tornadoes and landspouts are two small-sized events that the SAWS is working tirelessly to nowcast for the benefit of the public. Unlike with other weather conditions, signs of the potential development of a tornado are very evasive, particularly for landspouts. However, there has been an instance where the SAWS issued a tornado warning before its formation (on Saturday, 30 December 2017) albeit four minutes before it struck,” SAWS said in the statement.
The two weather events, which have become more intense and frequent together with other storm types as a result of climate change in recent years, are similar in appearance, but differ in their development mechanisms and strengths.
“It is for this reason that the SAWS conducted a thorough analysis across Montana after which it was concluded that the event was a landspout.”
The weather event was classified as an EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale for tornado intensity, which is generally associated with “light or minor damage” and wind speeds of 90-130km/h.
The landspout developed shortly before 5pm and mainly affected a short stretch to the busy Sefako Makgato Drive (R513). It proceeded towards Zambezi, uprooting trees, destroying car ports, roofs and generally damaging buildings, fences and motor vehicles in a short space of time of about five minutes. The SAWS said it was “miraculous” that up to so far no deaths or serious injury had been reported.
“Eyewitnesses estimated that this landspout took less than 5 minutes before lifting and disappearing. The trace of its weakened phase was noted towards Zambezi where only tree branches were broken off with a zigzagging motion to the right side and back to the left of the main road.”
“At the time of the incident, the SAWS had an Orange Level 5 Impact-Based weather warning in place over Gauteng and adjacent provinces for disruptive rainfall and/or localised flooding. Days earlier on Sunday, 16 February 2025, a SAWS Media Release was issued to the public warning of the onset of a spell of heavy rain and flooding,” the SAWS said.
As seen in these pictures, the classic narrow-funnel shape of the Montana landspout, with a well-defined connection to the parent thunderstorm cloud is similar in appearance to that of a tornado. Source: Pretoria Rekord / StormReport SA