Up To Nine Tornadoes Hit Central & Southern England - Roofs Ripped Off, But No Casualties - Reuters

[hatrack]

LONDON - A series of tornadoes hit central and southern England on Monday, tearing off roof tiles and ripping branches from trees.

Residents watched aghast as the storms twisted their destructive way through towns from Nuneaton in the Midlands to Farnborough in Hampshire. One witness described the scene in Nuneaton as "absolute bedlam" and said the roofs had been ripped off a row of 10 to 15 houses. "It only lasted a couple of minutes," he told Sky News. "It's devastating."

Terence Meaden, Deputy Head of the UK's Tornado and Storm Research Organisation, said the storms were "quite a big event", second only to those of last December when Britain was hit by at least 12 tornadoes across the country.

"Some of the places definitely had tornadoes because they were seen -- I would say that we have nine events which could be tornadoes and some of them certainly were," Meaden told BBC Television.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/44496/story.htm

[northernsoul]

1. Tornadoes? In England?

I lived there for ~ 6 months in 1993, and my guess is that there is no effing way this is normal.

[displacedtexan]

2. I went to school in London (1981)

and many people asked, "You have those things called tornadoes. What are they like?"

I had never heard of tornadoes in England until recently.

[bagimin]

4. Global warming???

nothing to see here...just move along.

[MADem]

5. Call it "climate change"--much friendlier, eh!!!???

:rofl:

[northernsoul]

6. I had similar experiences

trying to explain the extremes of weather we Minnesotans experience over 12 months.

[phantom power]

3. "On average, 33 tornadoes are reported each year in the United Kingdom."

So, they aren't unheard of. Although nine in one day seems like a pretty severe event, even in the US.

http://www.torro.org.uk/TORRO/severeweather/tornadofaqs.php#faq4

[depakid]

7. Surprisingly, the UK has the highest frequency of tornadoes in the world per square mile

but they're usually small, short lived and do little damage.

The Birmingham tornado back in 2005 was an exception- an F2-3 that cut a path of destruction over seven miles long. An F2 also hit London last December.

From the Independent:

....the violent weather was caused by the meeting of two extreme winds, one warm and one cold. The organisation said that up to 11 tornadoes occurred when a squall line ripped through the Midlands and southern parts of the country early in the morning, with gusts of up to 80mph.

Terry Parrott, from Farnborough, saw the twister approaching his house. " At about 7.30, I was getting ready to get in the shower and I heard this tremendous rushing noise – the winds were just getting stronger and stronger, " he said.

"I looked out of my bedroom window and saw this huge whirling thing come through between the two houses and it lifted the garage roofs up.

"It just picked everythingup, even stuff that was nailed down. It was incredible, then after 90 seconds it was gone, it was all over".

Hayley Stroud, 27, also from Farnborough said the noise from the twister was so loud that her son was screaming in fear. "It was like something out of The Wizard of Oz", she said.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2996104.ece