Use of modern tree‐fall patterns as a guideline for interpreting prostrate trees at a pre–Last Glacial Maximum paleoforest site, upper North Island, New Zealand

Wind throw, as evidenced by a tree bole with an attached root plate, is an indicator of forest disturbance, and can often be used as direct evidence of surface winds during a single storm event. We assess tree‐fall patterns resulting from the 1982 Cyclone Bernie event in the North Island, New Zealand, and apply these findings to interpretation of a pre–Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) tree‐fall site to determine if the subfossil tree‐fall pattern could have been caused by a single extropical cyclone. There is insufficient evidence to recommend that a single extropical storm event could have caused the forest destruction observed at our pre‐LGM tree‐fall site, and therefore multiple possibilities for enhanced wind flow that could have caused tree throw are possible.