The UK sees on average around 35 tornadoes each year. Though generally tornadoes in the UK are weak in comparison to those seen in the USA, the United Kingdom has more tornadoes per area than any other country in the world.
Recent weeks have seen tornadoes across parts of England which have caused some damage to property. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, a suspected tornado caused some damage to property in a suburban street in Coventry, ripping tiles from roofs that subsequently damaged cars below, while fence panels were blown away and even a concrete post was snapped in half at one property. Insurers seemed unsympathetic with one resident in paying out for the damage, saying winds in the area were 30mph, but tornadoes are highly localised, so a weather station nearby would unlikely capture the concentrated damaging winds of a tornado. A tornado hit the village of Humberston near Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire on the 27th September, 20 houses were damaged, with roofs and windows badly damaged and vehicles flipped over – leaving residents in shock.
On the 27th of July there were sightings of a tornado in Northamptonshire. There were sightings of waterspouts off the coasts of the British Isles too in July, one seen off the coast of Gwynedd in north Wales, another off the coast of Worthing in West Sussex. On July 9th there were sightings of a funnel cloud in Darlington and Newton Aycliffe in NE England, also on the same day a tornado in Cambridgeshire, one video even showed it crossing a lake, so it was technically a waterspout when it crossed the water. There were sightings of a funnel cloud over Lincolnshire on the 8th too, though it wasn’t clear if it made contact with the ground making it a tornado. There were numerous sightnings of a tornado and subsequent damage in Essex on 25th of June too.
Although rare, there have been a few strong tornadoes that have caused significant damage in the UK. In July 2005 a strong tornado hit the southern suburbs of Birmingham, with estimated wind speeds around the funnel of around 130mph. It injured 19 people, causing £40million of damage, tearing up more than 1,000 trees. While in December 2006, a tornado in Kensal Green, North-West London, wrecked property to the tune of £10million. In October 2013, a tornado caused damage to about 100 homes on Hayling Island in Hampshire. This particular tornado appeared to start off as waterspout over the adjacent English Channel before coming ashore moving beach huts, flipping a caravan over in a Holiday Park and damaging buildings and vehicles on land.
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