Tornadoes cause chaos across England

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

Perilous Times and Global Warming

Tornadoes cause chaos across England

By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter

Last Updated: 6:14pm BST 24/09/2007

Up to 11 tornadoes tore across central England this morning, ripping off roofs and uprooting trees in what one householder likened to a scene from the Wizard of Oz.

In pictures: Tornado hits Readers' pictures: Send in your photos of tornado damage Google Map: The affected areas Freak weather conditions, with winds gusting up to 65mph, caused twisters to form as far apart as Hampshire and Lincolnshire, damaging dozens of houses but mercifully causing no reported injuries.   Google Map: Click to zoom in on the affected towns In Northamptonshire a school bus had its roof wrenched off when it was hit by a falling tree, but because the tornado struck at 7am there were no children on board. Two motorists in Eye, Cambridgeshire, also had lucky escapes when a car was lifted off its wheels and blown into a van on the A47, badly damaging both vehicles but leaving the drivers unscathed. The Met Office blamed a cold front which made landfall at Exeter at 4am and moved westwards across the country, blowing out into the North Sea at 9am. The worst damage was in Cove, Hants., where a tornado formed at 7.30am and sucked up roof tiles, trees and even a caravan. The damage was largely confined to a single street, Rother Road, where 20 properties were affected, including a four-car garage block which lost its entire roof. A tree also crashed into a bus shelter in nearby Fernhill Road, which was empty at the time. Eyewitness Terry Parrott, 55, said: "I looked out of my bedroom window and could see this huge whirling thing come through between 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." Hayley Stroud, 27, said: "We saw the tail end of the tornado going across and our chimney pot came off. It was like something out of The Wizard of Oz." The first reports of tornadoes came from Nuneaton, Warwicks., where 35 properties were damaged in three streets at 6.15am. Yvette Mawson, whose trampoline was picked up from her garden and deposited 20 yards away, said: "I woke up at a quarter past six and I could hear bangs, crashes, glass smashing and car alarms going off. I looked out of the window and I couldn't believe the weather. I thought something was missing from the garden, then I realised the trampoline had gone." Northamptonshire was hit at 7am, when a double-decker school bus suffered serious damage from a falling branch as it drove on the A4500 between Earls Barton and Ecton. In total 15 roads in the Northampton area were closed or obstructed by falling branches. Another tornado hit Luton at 7.30, where roofs were damaged and fences blown over as a twister scythed through Mallard Gardens with a noise which one local likened to a jet engine. Ruth Spaull, 38, said: "It came round a tree and it must have been around 4 metres across. It was full of leaves and branches and seemed to be grey in colour." Further reports of tornado activity came from Breaston and Long Eaton, Derbys., Nottingham and nearby Ollerton, Whittlesey, Cambs., and Scunthorpe., Lincs. Terrence Meaden, deputy head of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro) said a series of tornadoes forming across the country in this way was "infrequent" but not unprecedented. On average, 33 tornadoes are reported annually in the UK, which has the highest number of reported tornadoes per square miles than any other country. Torro puts the statistic down to the UK's dense population, which makes tornadoes far more likely to be spotted than in sparsely populated areas such as Mid-West America. The Association of British Insurers said the cost of the damage was likely to be slightly less than that of last December, when a twister damaged 100 houses in Kensal Rise in north London, but cost only £350,000 in repairs.