Tornado rages London!!!

[Theis]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6217514.stm

Scary!  :o

[Romulus111VADT]

Those are common in the US, especially in the midwest in tornado alley.

But they still scare the crap out of me! :-/

[Mobius]

I can't count the number of times I've heard the tornado sirens go off.  I've even sat and watch the swirling clouds pass right over my house. Scary stuff, especially at night...

[Saitek]

We get quite a few in the UK every year. Just that they are usually weak and tend not to hit built up areas. Each year though scenes like this happen. I think the fact that it was in London and did so much damage that makes it quite significant.

[Craig.]

we had a couple hit bham over the last few years. Scary because we dont have warnings like in the US.

[Saitek]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6219280.stm

The BBC say that there are about 40 recorded tornados every year. That excludes the unreported ones of course.
So 1 recorded tornado for every 10 days makes them seem quite common.

[Hagar]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6219280.stm

The BBC say that there are about 40 recorded tornados every year. That excludes the unreported ones of course.
So 1 recorded tornado for every 10 days makes them seem quite common.

Apparently we get more than Tornado Alley in the US. Not normally so serious as this & we used to call them Whirlwinds. Of course, they're making a big fuss as it's in London & inevitably associating it with Global Warming. There was a photo of a twister off Brighton beach in the papers a few months ago & one at Selsey in 1998 caused

[Mobius]

Apparently we get more than Tornado Alley in the US.

We sometimes get close to forty tornadoes in one storm system!

[Hagar]

Apparently we get more than Tornado Alley in the US.

We sometimes get close to forty tornadoes in one storm system!

I'm only quoting official government sources. I'm not trying to say that they're anything like those in the US.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/weatherguide/severe.html

Does the UK really get tornadoes?

The UK has the highest frequency of reported tornadoes per unit area in the world, but most of them are far smaller than the tornadoes we are used to seeing on TV pictures from the USA. About 30-50 tornadoes are reported each year in the UK. Many tornado reports are from the western Midlands, eastern Midlands, central-southern England, south-eastern England and East Anglia. They are generally smaller and cause less damage than those in 'tornado alley' in the United States (see TORRO web site).

[BAW0343]

Humm, we get dust devils round here  :P  hardly do any damage, but rather find all kids running twards it as to get in the middle  ;D

Dust Devils

quite fun  ;D

[flyboy 28]

A few years ago we had a tornado and an earthquake in the same week.

[concordepilot]

I know amazing isn't it but at the same time horrible. Ilive about 3 hours away from London near Bristol and for the past 3 days we have had mighty strong winds. At school we almost got blown over.  :o

[murjax]

I live in Florida and we rarely get tornadoes. I did see a funnel cloud once though. It started to come down, but then it went back up. So no damage caused by that.  :)

[Saitek]

For strong winds in the UK try out the Scottish Islands. It blows a gale very often. Bitter cold in winter.

BAW - I have seen a couple of dust devils. They are really quite funny. I'm not sure how related they are to Tornadoes. I saw one two years ago and it was about 20 ft high and about 1-2 meters wide and lasted less than a minute. It was weird.

[MWISimmer]

....try out the Scottish Islands..... Bitter cold in winter.

And summer too eh?  ;D
Rob.  ;)