“Tornado” Spotted at Changi T5 Construction Site is an “Extremely Rare” Landspout

Last Updated on 2023-05-08 , 12:00 pm

If there’s one thing that I’m sure everyone living in Singapore is grateful for, it’s that our country experiences no natural disasters.

However, people around Changi Airport Terminal 5 might have felt like they were witnessing a tornado right before their eyes on Sunday (30 April).

In a video first posted on TikTok, sheets of debris could be seen being blown in the air in a tornado-like formation.

@yeothuang1968♬ original sound – yeothuang1968

The video was also posted on YouTube by a user named Amin Aziz Random Youtube Video, who titled his video “Tornado happening in Singapore Changi Airport T5 construction site”.

The location of the “tornado” was at Changi East, where the construction site for Changi Airport Terminal 5 is located.

The entire clip lasted almost four minutes before the wind finally died down.

Well, when I said I wanted Singapore to be cooler and breezy, I definitely didn’t mean it in this way.

Other items, such as construction barriers and a metal signpost, were also moved by the wind.

Meteorological Service Singapore’s Response: It’s a Landspout

When speaking to CNA yesterday (3 May), the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) identified the frightening phenomenon as a landspout.

It added that landspouts are caused by the sucking of “circulating air currents above a warm space” into the “updraft of a developing thunderstorm cloud”.

For the unaware, “updraft” is the upwards-moving air in the atmosphere.

In TL;DR terms, this basically means that air taken in by thunderstorm clouds that are forming causes landspouts.

As for its impact, MSS mentioned that it might cause slight damage to buildings in the area and might be risky for those near the location of the landspout.

Changi Airport Group’s Response: No One Injured

When speaking about the incident, a spokesperson from Changi Airport Group (CAG) told The Straits Times that the landspout was a result of an “unusual natural phenomenon”.

Thankfully, no one was injured by the landspout.

Since then, CAG and its contractors have carried out a safety assessment to ensure that construction works can still go on as usual.

The spokesperson added that further reinforcements, such as using “additional support” to hold down items that can move about, have also been utilised since the landspout occurrence.

Can Predict Thunderstorms, But Not Landspouts

As for whether weather services can predict landspouts, the short answer is no.

According to MSS, which can predict and warn Singaporeans of impending thunderstorms, landspouts are “extremely rare” and “difficult to predict”.

This is even though landspouts are often triggered by thunderstorms.

In this case, a thunderstorm also took place before the landspout formed, for MSS’ records showed that there was a thunderstorm near Changi, which started at around 11.10 am.

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Landspout Last Seen in Singapore in 2019

And it isn’t the first time something like this has happened in Singapore.

Back in 2019, the very first landspout in Singapore was reported when one formed at Tuas on 27 September.

Similar to the recent landspout, the landspout had formed after a heavy thunderstorm that started at around 10.30 am that morning.