‘The rain was getting heavier ... The window flew open, and the blinds were sucked out of the window ... It lasted around 10-20 seconds,” recounted a witness after a tornado tore through Wick in West Sussex on September 17. Added to the mayhem, a loud roaring noise was reported as the tornado blasted through.
An investigation by the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro) found that the tornado tore a narrow track about two miles long through Wick and nearby Littlehampton. Trees were stripped of leaves and branches, some toppled over and crushed parked cars, chimneys crashed down, windows in houses and cars were shattered, and a garden shed was hurled high up into a tree. One person was injured by broken glass.
The tornado had been spawned from an intense thunderstorm that had crossed the Channel.
Last Saturday evening there were reports of another tornado carving a remarkably similar track through Littlehampton and Wick with an account of a roof ripped off a building, although the full extent of damage is still to be assessed.
Previous studies by Torro have revealed that tornados are surprisingly common in the UK, although they are generally much smaller and far less violent than the powerful twisters in the US. The region around the Isle of Wight and the nearby south coast is something of a hotspot, including places such as Bognor Regis and Selsey. One theory is that thunderstorms hitting the Isle of Wight can set the atmosphere spinning off into vortices that can give the storms enough spin to form into tornados.
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Other places in the UK noted for tornados include an area around Ipswich and parts of the Midlands. In July 2005, Birmingham was struck by a particularly strong one, with wind speeds estimated to have reached over 140mph, shopfronts and roofs torn off, buildings wrecked, more than 1,000 trees felled and 19 people injured. Damage was estimated at about £40 million.
