A tornado ripped through Greymouth at 1pm on the 10th of March 2005.

A cold front brought unstable air from the south/southwest followed by a strong northwesterly wind and high moisture, with the determining factor being a northeasterly flow at low levels along the Southern Alps, which brought on rotation of the storm.

The direct effects of the tornado were confined to a narrow strip of destruction through a mainly commercial area of town. The path of devastation was approximately 4 km long and 400 m wide. It came within 100 m of the path of the tornado that occurred in 2003. The tornado made landfall at Blaketown and moved quickly though Greymouth, passing just south of the town centre, twisted its way up Grey River before crossing to a lagoon across town and up into the hills.

The tornado was formed in the absence of a thunderstorm and formed as waterspout over the sea just west of Greymouth. It was preceded by black clouds "billowing" into the sky.

It had an F1 rating with winds speeds of around 180 km/hr.

It was estimated that the tornado lasted 10 seconds.

The insurance industry payouts for the tornado was $9,200,000 (in 2005).

The path of the tornado was still evident six months later.

It took two days to clean up the debris.

There was some interruptions to traffic in town. Roads were blocked by police due to dangerous debris and live wires.

Power lines were snapped or blown down causing electricity to be cut to half of the town but it was reinstated within a few hours.

Two tornadoes touched down in Greymouth within two years.

There was no loss of life.

Due to the amount of damage they had obtained, several buildings in the direct path of tornado had to be demolished.

The wind tore off structural envelopes.

Flying debris hit buildings at high speeds. There were smashed windows, parts of roofs torn off and destroyed garages.

The cellphone network experienced problems.

45 residential homes were damaged and 16 home were badly damaged or destroyed.

30 businesses were affected.

Over 50 cars were wrote off.

The tornado came in from the sea.

Timber and roofing iron from buildings was driven into cars and into the ground. Sheets of roofing iron were lying around and were dotted through the green hills beyond Greymouth.

There was considerable damage at the Port of Greymouth. Only one wall was left standing at Allan Devine Engineering, a truck was blown into the lagoon, a car was missing, containers were spun around and windows were blown out of a bus company's vehicles. The damage was worse than that caused by the 2003 tornado.

There was extensive damage in Blaketown. Collins Street was the worst affected area, with 11 houses destroyed or badly damaged.

The tornado caused extensive damage to buildings on Tainui Street, including Dispatch and Garlick engineering company and the Civic Video store. Surrounding suburbs were also affected.

The walls were ripped off the Dispatch and Garlick engineering company and the building was destroyed.

The Caltex service station had part of the forecourt blown off, windows blown out, cars damaged, a fence demolished and branches stripped off a pohuakawa tree.

Approximately 100 residents of Kowhai Manor retirement home were evacuated.

The tornado left nine families homeless.

Up to 30 people were made homeless and spent the night at a Polytechnic owned student motel.

Two homes were destroyed in Swainson Street and a concrete power pole was snapped in half.

The Video Ezy store was gutted.

Six people received injuries from the tornado. Two people were admitted to hospital with moderate injuries and one was treated and discharged. The St John's ambulance treated another three people for minor cuts and bruises. One woman was injured when the tornado flipped over the campervan she was sitting in.

A $40,000 Camaro was squashed under a wall.

One wing of the resthome lost its roof and the building was badly damaged.

Windows of 14 fleet buses were smashed in the bus depot.

A 12 tonne truck was overturned along with a number of cars.

Trees uprooted and the substation was damaged.

West Coast is one of the most tornado-prone areas of New Zealand.