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A series of mini-tornadoes carved a path through the centre of England today, forcing residents to flee and damaging buildings in Farnborough, Nuneaton, Northampton, Luton and Nottingham.
One motorist saw a car lifted up and thrown across the road at Eye in Cambridgeshire, local police said. Elsewhere trees were uprooted, caravans up-ended and cars damaged by roof tiles sent flying by the storms, though no injuries were reported.
A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire police said that the car concerned and a van had been seriously damaged in the incident on the A47. Though the witness’s report had not been verified, she explained, “he said it was an amazing sight.”
A caravan overturned by a tornado in Nuneaton, photographed by a reader
A falling branch ripped part of the roof from a school bus in Northamptonshire – fortunately before it had picked up any children. Police said the area’s officers were dealing with 15 reports of roads blocked by trees or branches, and were also working to remove branches from the roofs of two houses.
Roofs were ripped from ten houses in Farnborough, while trees were uprooted. One local resident, Terry Parrot, 50, said the tornado had cut straight through a row of garages, lifting the roofs off and damaging the cars inside.
Parrott, 50, said he was first alerted to the approaching tornado when his dogs began howling at the winds buffeting his house.
“They must have seen something coming. They knew something was up,” he said.
“I looked out of my bedroom window and could see this huge whirling thing come through between the two houses and it lifted the garage roofs up. It just picked everything up, even stuff that was nailed down. It was incredible, and then after 90 seconds it was all gone, it was all over.”
However he dismissed rumours that a dog had been seen flying through the air during the tornado.
He said: “There was a small cocker spaniel that was missing from a garden but about 40 minutes later it was found walking around in a bedraggled state, but I don’t think it went flying around.”
“It was like something out of The Wizard of Oz,” fellow resident Hayley Stroud, 27, said, describing how a “twister” had destroyed her chimney stack.
In Nuneaton, some 35 homes suffered roof damage, the most severe being in the Kingfisher Way area of Camp Hill, according to Nuneaton and Bedfordshire Borough Council. Four fire crews and a hydraulic platform were at the scene, while nearby a road had to be sealed off as emergency workers attempted to secure the roofs of two houses.
Beryl Warburton, 79, a lollipop lady, watched the tornado sweep through her street at around 6.15am, describing the experience as “frightening.”
“Some of the houses have had their roofs taken off completely, some have lost parts of their roofs. One of them has got holes up there and water in their bedroom.
“One of my neighbours, their trampoline was blown over the garden fence and into the council garages opposite. I’ve got damage to my roof, but I don’t know how bad it is … All the rubble was in the road from the slates and things.”
Terrence Meaden, deputy head of tornado research group Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro), said Luton was hit at 6.45am. “I have spoken with a witness who saw the tornado funnel at ground level going through her garden,” he said.
Dr Meaden said separate reports of strong winds, which caused a “horrendous” noise, blowing down trees and lifting roof tiles in Nottingham at about 6.30am suggested that a tornado had indeed hit the town.
The weather system that caused the tornadoes passed over Exeter, Devon, at 4am and travelled eastwards over Nuneaton and Luton before moving out into the North Sea, he said.
Torro’s research team will spend the next few days investigating witness reports and assessing the range and intensity of the damage in order to construct a clear picture of what happened.
Dr Meaden said a series of tornadoes forming simultaneously across the country in this manner was “infrequent enough” but not unprecedented. The UK experiences about 10 to 12 confirmed tornadoes caused by the same weather system about once a year, he said.
England has the highest number of reported tornadoes per unit area in the world, leaving tornado hotspots such as Oklahoma – to which it is roughly equivalent in size - trailing in its wake.
Paul Knightley, a director at Torro, stressed however that Britain’s tornadoes were significantly less violent than many other areas. The “quirky” statistic might also result from the country’s dense population, he suggested.
An average of 33 tornadoes are reported annually in the UK, though it is believed many go unreported. The figure can fluctuate dramatically from year to year – in November 1981, as many as 105 tornados hit Britain in under six hours.
Last December saw a tornado tear through Kensal Rise in north London, causing severe damage to houses, cars and trees but no serious injuries.
In 1954 12 people were injured when a tornado hit west and north London, during a violent storm which destroyed Gunnersbury Tube station and blew a car 15ft into the air at Acton.
One motorist saw a car lifted up and thrown across the road at Eye in Cambridgeshire, local police said. Elsewhere trees were uprooted, caravans up-ended and cars damaged by roof tiles sent flying by the storms, though no injuries were reported.
A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire police said that the car concerned and a van had been seriously damaged in the incident on the A47. Though the witness’s report had not been verified, she explained, “he said it was an amazing sight.”
A caravan overturned by a tornado in Nuneaton, photographed by a reader
A falling branch ripped part of the roof from a school bus in Northamptonshire – fortunately before it had picked up any children. Police said the area’s officers were dealing with 15 reports of roads blocked by trees or branches, and were also working to remove branches from the roofs of two houses.
Roofs were ripped from ten houses in Farnborough, while trees were uprooted. One local resident, Terry Parrot, 50, said the tornado had cut straight through a row of garages, lifting the roofs off and damaging the cars inside.
Parrott, 50, said he was first alerted to the approaching tornado when his dogs began howling at the winds buffeting his house.
“They must have seen something coming. They knew something was up,” he said.
“I looked out of my bedroom window and could see this huge whirling thing come through between the two houses and it lifted the garage roofs up. It just picked everything up, even stuff that was nailed down. It was incredible, and then after 90 seconds it was all gone, it was all over.”
However he dismissed rumours that a dog had been seen flying through the air during the tornado.
He said: “There was a small cocker spaniel that was missing from a garden but about 40 minutes later it was found walking around in a bedraggled state, but I don’t think it went flying around.”
“It was like something out of The Wizard of Oz,” fellow resident Hayley Stroud, 27, said, describing how a “twister” had destroyed her chimney stack.
In Nuneaton, some 35 homes suffered roof damage, the most severe being in the Kingfisher Way area of Camp Hill, according to Nuneaton and Bedfordshire Borough Council. Four fire crews and a hydraulic platform were at the scene, while nearby a road had to be sealed off as emergency workers attempted to secure the roofs of two houses.
Beryl Warburton, 79, a lollipop lady, watched the tornado sweep through her street at around 6.15am, describing the experience as “frightening.”
“Some of the houses have had their roofs taken off completely, some have lost parts of their roofs. One of them has got holes up there and water in their bedroom.
“One of my neighbours, their trampoline was blown over the garden fence and into the council garages opposite. I’ve got damage to my roof, but I don’t know how bad it is … All the rubble was in the road from the slates and things.”
Terrence Meaden, deputy head of tornado research group Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro), said Luton was hit at 6.45am. “I have spoken with a witness who saw the tornado funnel at ground level going through her garden,” he said.
Dr Meaden said separate reports of strong winds, which caused a “horrendous” noise, blowing down trees and lifting roof tiles in Nottingham at about 6.30am suggested that a tornado had indeed hit the town.
The weather system that caused the tornadoes passed over Exeter, Devon, at 4am and travelled eastwards over Nuneaton and Luton before moving out into the North Sea, he said.
Torro’s research team will spend the next few days investigating witness reports and assessing the range and intensity of the damage in order to construct a clear picture of what happened.
Dr Meaden said a series of tornadoes forming simultaneously across the country in this manner was “infrequent enough” but not unprecedented. The UK experiences about 10 to 12 confirmed tornadoes caused by the same weather system about once a year, he said.
England has the highest number of reported tornadoes per unit area in the world, leaving tornado hotspots such as Oklahoma – to which it is roughly equivalent in size - trailing in its wake.
Paul Knightley, a director at Torro, stressed however that Britain’s tornadoes were significantly less violent than many other areas. The “quirky” statistic might also result from the country’s dense population, he suggested.
An average of 33 tornadoes are reported annually in the UK, though it is believed many go unreported. The figure can fluctuate dramatically from year to year – in November 1981, as many as 105 tornados hit Britain in under six hours.
Last December saw a tornado tear through Kensal Rise in north London, causing severe damage to houses, cars and trees but no serious injuries.
In 1954 12 people were injured when a tornado hit west and north London, during a violent storm which destroyed Gunnersbury Tube station and blew a car 15ft into the air at Acton.
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