Tornadoes whip across United Kingdom
Jeanne:
September 24th, 2007
Wild weather has hit Britain again, it seems. Tornadoes, natural phenomena more commonly associated with the American Midwest, have struck a number of communities in the United Kingdom causing thousands of pounds worth of damage. Some of the strongest tornadoes hit the town of Nuneaton, in Warwickshire. Homes and vehicles suffered damage in Luton, whilst in Northampton, falling branches smashed the roof of a school bus which was fortunately empty at the time. A number of buildings were also damaged in Farnborough and Beaston. One eyewitness in Farnborough, described what local residents woke up to on Monday morning:
“Caravans have been upside down, trees uprooted, bus shelters destroyed. It’s just complete devastation.”
Fortunately, there do not appear to have been any casualties.
Sources at the UK’s Met Office have indicated that winds reached speeds of up to 60 mph during the incidences and that the tornadoes could therefore be classified as having been ‘moderate to strong.’ Scientists believe that the weather system responsible for this spate of tornadoes developed over parts of Exeter, Devon before dawn on Monday morning. By 0900 it had progressed eastward across England, before finally dissipating in the North Sea. Whilst clusters of tornadoes such as the ones witnessed today are a rare phenomenon, they have occurred on a number of instances elsewhere. And tornadoes are not that uncommon in the United Kingdom either. The UK Met Office records some 33 tornadoes annually for the country.
Insurers are bracing themselves for an increase in claims following the tornados. This is particularly troubling as most insurance companies are still reeling from the costs of the floods which hit Britain this summer. However, the Association of British Insurers expects the cost of the damage caused by the tornados to be significant if eyewitness reports are anything to go by. According to one eyewitness in Warwickshire, the scene she woke up to at 0610 BST was one of the most frightening she had ever seen:
One of my neighbours, their trampoline was blown over the garden fence. Some of the houses have had their roofs taken off completely, some have lost parts of their roofs.
The last major tornado to hit the United Kingdom was that which struck London in December 2006. Insurance costs in that instance exceeded £350,000.