After strong south westerly winds prevailed overnight there was a temporary change to the north west, during which there was a thunderstorm and a heavy shower of rain and hail. The strong north westerly gale reached its climax at 8.50am when a tornado blew in from the sea.

The tornado caused heavy damage to property over a belt across the town, leaving in its wake scores of broken windows, flattened fences, partially unroofed houses, and even completely wrecked buildings.

The tornado had a northwesterly course and was approximately 50 yards (46m) wide.

It was the worst phenomenon of this kind Greymouth had experienced to this date.

It was flying timber and iron that caused the greatest damage.

A total of 50 buildings were affected.

Greymouth Surf Club was completely demolished and the building cost £200 ($20,500 2009 dollars).

Several houses were partially unroofed in Blacktown.

A two storey building which was used as a factory was demolished, roofing iron and timber was scattered over a wide area damaging all the houses in the vicinity

A house adjoining the theatre was wrecked with the verandah and the front of the roof disappearing.

The Fire Station had its chimney demolished and two double doors blown in.

The Opera House will need some rebuilding. A yacht was overturned and a boatshed was unroofed. A car was crushed by a chimney that was blown over and sheets of iron was ripped from the church roof.

Guinness Street, Oddfellows Hall, Lyceum Hall and the Salvation Army all experienced some damage.

Arney Street was heavily damaged. It was impassable to traffic due to debris, fallen telegraph poles and many twisted telegraph and electric power lines across the road.

Apart from some minor injuries of people in houses receiving minor cuts from flying glass, there were no cases of serious injury reported as no one was in the streets at the time.

Numerous telephone lines were out in Greymouth and country districts.

All communication between Greymouth and Reefton was cut off when trees fell across the lines.

There was thousands of pounds worth of damage.