[First filed: April 05, 2009 @ 09:16]
“Notbothered” has sent in these pictures with the following note:
- No story, just a pic of a whirlwind at one of the new subdivisions in Canberra, thought it was a cool pic!
They happen fairly regularly, but haven’t seen one this big 
I’ve asked for details about which subdivision it was and will let you know when I know.
amazing i am first to comment – everyone out enjoying the interesting weather, then? or been sucked up by the bigger one that’s behind notbothered..!
fantastic image – looks like the sky pointing a finger and saying, ‘i’ll have that, and that…’
cheers! ; )
I’ve actually noticed quite a few of them out at Franklin during the last few years. I suspect it has to do with Kaleen, Giralang, Crace, Palmerston, Franklin & Harrison seem to be appearing as Canberra’s own tornado/severe storm.
I’ve seen an occasional one but probably never that big. Well done getting the pic.
I don’t want to burst any bubbles but that there’s just a big willy-willy. Twisters (tornadoes) are a different thing altogether. That’s not to say that this isn’t an impressive example.
But it’s so much bigger than the average willy-willy, it should be called a dick-dick.
Get you hand off it!
I saw one like this over the DFO area some months back, from the Ridgeway, but by teh time I’d pulled over and got camera out, it was falling apart. It is a willy-willy, but when those things collect you, you sure know about it.
i dont think anyone claimed it was a tornado. the op called it a whirlwind.
Nice pic, whatever you want to call the subject.
Looks a little bit ‘war of the worlds’. Or perhaps it is a UFO assisting with the sub-division.
Beam me up, Scotty!
Oh, Toto. There’s no place like home!
Yeah we see a few of these around here. Amazing to watch them rip through building sites…
Got some pics of one a bit bigger than this about 2 years ago as Franklin was first being dozed, but not with the cool cloud on top. It ripped across Flemington Rd then through the display village, which was half built then.
We get some full-blown dust storms too that resemble a winter fog…worse with the sports grounds under construction now. First thing you do when you move in is put sealing strips and flaps on all external doors – and the one into your garage – garages get so dirty I’m going to buy some of what Rollador call “Embaseal” – strips across the top and sides of the garage rolladors to stop dirt, wind and fire embers coming in.
But in a couple more years we’ll have most of the bare dirt covered, and the buildings break the winds up a lot. Then Harrison will get a reprieve for a few years until Kenny starts.
Fake.
“Fake”
+1
12 year old armed with photoshop – happy to be corrected
LMT and Krizzle: I say again – have seen them looking exactly like this and even bigger. Part of the reason I always carry a camera now.
Al,
I’ve got some magic beans i’m selling.
seeing as “notbothered” also started a thread about a sexual assault, which has so far not been reported about (police or media), i’m thinking massive troll.
Some of you people really don’t like learning new things do you?
Multiple people have corroborated the phenomenon.
And as noted on the other thread not all crime is announced to the media.
Gungahlin Al said :
the only reason that this one looks out of kilter is the cloud. I have seen them on a very cloudy day, without creating any disturbance above on the cloud mass… I do believe that this one is real.
Johnboy,
i’ve seen them, in new subdivisions in Gungahlin, but never one like this.
also happy to be proved wrong however.
Great pic. I’ve seen a few of these of late while I’ve been driving backwards and forwards to Albury for work. Haven’t seen anything this big though. That’s a cracker!
FFS chewy, for what reason would I be bothered posting other than the truth here, huh? Especially as – unlike you – my ID is well known?
I have seen 2 such willy willies both on virtually cloudless days, and MANY smaller ones.
Peter, there’s a difference between willies and tornados (large or small) – willies happen on hot clear days, where thermalling comes UP from ground level. Thermalling can lead to cloud tops. Tornadoes come DOWN from the clouds. I have seen these many times over the ocean (even saw a double off Kawana once), and a few times out over the south-west slopes. As I understand it…
Al,
as i said above i have seen them too. All i was saying is that i think this photo is a Fake.
Gungahlin Al said :
Al, the cloud in the photo hasn’t been effected by the willy-willy. i have seen them before and this was a particularly good example of one. You can easily spot that it is ground created, look at the thickness of the funnel at ground level vs in the sky. Tornados have the opposite. large funnel in the sky down to tapered end on land. The force of the storm that they are formed from is the key to tornados. with a serious amount of upward pressure, sometimes the clouds are broken up.
“Is that a willy-willy, or are you just happy to see me?”
Hehe!
: D
it looks fake because theres a cloud in the pic, it has not come from the cloud, it was just good positioning. Plenty of Gungahlin residents can vouch for the fact that they happen fairly frequently and even more workers on the Job site will tell you.
notbothered said :
would trees reduce the effect, or is it due to the wide open spaces of gungahlin?
Trees would probably stop them happening so frequently but unfortunately with new suburbs a lot of trees get ripped up, I’m not sure if new suburbs elswhere get them as well, or if it is localised to gungahlin.
notbothered said :
I hadn’t noticed any out in tuggeranong, which is why I was curious. Also, if there was an increase the numbers of wooded areas in gungahlin, would this have a positive effect on this kind of natural occurence?
They could happen anywhere, without the dust you won’t even realise it’s there.
True true, the dust makes them alot easier to see but trees would act as a wind breaker wouldn’t they?!
Trees and buildings increase the overall roughness of the ground, lowering the airflow available. Because they feed on hot air updrafts, trees and buildings lower the chance of them occuring.
Why would anyone bother faking a picture of a willy-willy in a Canberra suburb? If you were going to go out of your way to fake something, you might aswell make it look dramatic.
If you take into account the perspective of the shot, and the fact that the base of the willy-willy happens to be right on or behind that tree line, that would mean the cloud would have to be incredibly low and incredibly small.
It’s not fake, and I really don’t know why anyone would think it is.
I saw a similar one (probably larger) down near Coppins Crossing just after the Canberra Bushfires in 2003. In a stark, devoid landscape, the blackened dust being blown made an amazing sight – wish I’d had a camera with me then!!! A large number of cars had stopped to watch the spectacle…
Living near plenty of new developments, these things certainly happen – though one as big as that pictured is certainly noteworthy enough to capture on camera [and post on RiotACT]… well done “Notbothered”
Gerry-Built said :
+1
Looks pretty real to me.
Camera phone, or small bit cropped out of a larger photo?
If the image were higher resolution any photoshopping could be more easily detected. I’m erring on the side of a shopped image.
Pommy bastard said :
err away. you are wrong. a shopped image would have more blur, unless you went to pixel level. waste of time for one willy willy. Looks as if it was taken by a phone camera. the distinctive pixelation at the front of the photo gives it away as a low res shot.
Gosh, much ado about some cool pics – ‘notbothered’ is probably wishing that s/he hadn’t bothered…..
If you wanted to hide “shopping” then after cloning, duplicating, and merging of masks has been done, you then convert it to low resolution to hide any small tell-tale discrepancies.
‘taint no big thing though
If you wanted to hide “shopping” then after cloning, duplicating, and merging of masks has been done, you then convert it to low resolution to hide any small tell-tale discrepancies.
Might be quicker to just go out and take a photo…
maybe this will create the impression in the ACT govt that gungahlin needs more nature areas, with a heap of trees?
Yes, it was taken with a camera phone, handy things that they are
it has also been cropped as there was a fair bit of sky above the cloud. It was taken from about 200m away. I know alot of the newer suburbs are trying to keeps as many of the established trees as the can, but…. they’re creating a suburb. Not the best excuse I know but people will buy the houses that get put there.
F**k my dodgy spelling
notbothered said :
You mis-spelled “F**k”, too.