A farmer from Harrismith says he once heard of a tornado touching down at the town’s airfield, but he had never witnessed one on his own farm – until now.
By Alani Janeke, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
The team from Highland Farms near Harrismith was busy planting maize on the farm Maedersdeel on Thursday, 6 November, when a tornado swept across it ahead of a large thunderstorm.
Ruben van Niekerk, who farms with his father Jacques, caught the tornado on video while they were finishing planting one of the fields. They left quickly.
“We’re going back there today to see whether any damage was done,” Jacques says.
The thunderstorm following the tornado brought heavy hail, which destroyed the soya beans Jacques had planted a few weeks earlier. “We’ll have to replant the soya beans,” he says. “Some of the maize that has already germinated will survive because the growing points are still below the soil surface.”
His videos of the tornado quickly made the rounds on social media, with some people suggesting it was generated using artificial intelligence.
“I can assure you, they’re real,” Jacques says.
He says tornadoes have occurred in the area before. “A few years ago, one touched down at the airfield outside town and caused significant damage. But this is the first time we’ve seen something like this on our own land – it’s a rare sight.”
Independent agricultural meteorologist Johan van den Berg says, judging by the videos, it doesn’t appear to have been a large, destructive tornado, but it looked dramatic because of all the dust being lifted off the fields.
“Events like this may become more common in the coming weeks, especially as the warmer conditions build up energy. Cold air will still move up from the south and collide with the warm air and tropical moisture over the eastern parts of the summer rainfall region.”
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