Spire Fm Reports Mini Tornado Whiteparish Downton

[wallopweather]

local radio station Spire FM based in Salisbury, Wiltshire has reported a lucky escape for four motorists who's car was hit by a falling tree in Whiteparish. The driver reported seeing trees being ripped from their roots and said it was like being in a mini tornado. Police also reported a string of emergency calls from Downton and Whiteparish after strong winds and rain battered the area. No further information currently available.

Edited November 3, 2009 by wallopweather

[Coast]

I hasten to add the use of the words 'mini tornado' in the following article, are not by me!!!!

Romsey hit by mini tornado

1:11pm Tuesday 3rd November 2009

A MINI tornado is believed to have struck Hampshire this morning bringing chaos to a main road. Trees were brought down trees either side of the A3057 between Romsey and Timsbury at around midday.

Karen Slowen, landlady of the Dukes Head pub at Greatbridge, was just about to leave for Romsey when she found the road blocked.

"The wind ripped through here like a hurricane," said Karen, who said that a passing car's windscreen had been smashed by a falling branch. Karen added that trees had also been blown down along the B3084 toward Awbridge.

There were also reports of trees coming down in nearby Belbins and Timsbury. Sir Harold Hillier Gardens at Ampfield is closed for public safety reasons after several trees were blown down. Bosses will assess the situation later today.

The fierce winds coincided with torrential rain and lightning.

www.thisishampshire.net/news

[Harry]

Wow! Nice!!

Glad nobody was hurt though - appears Torro got in there about an hour before it struck!! The coincidence of lightning with the event would suggest to me that a sudden spike in convective activity occurred which led to the tornado!!

I notice on the radar runs that the heaviest rain missed me by about half a mile! I did think upon completing a quick cig break that I heard a distance rumble of thunder, though its often difficult to distinguish round here with all the air traffic! The sky certainly went v dark blue!!

[wallopweather]

teletext.co.uk : Tornado sweeps across area. A tornado caused damage to cars and buildings when it swept through Hampshire, the Met Office has said http://bit.ly/3Fe3IP

Full content of article:

"Tornado sweeps across area

A tornado caused damage to cars and buildings when it swept through Hampshire, the Met Office has said.

Police received scores of calls as what was described as a tornado moved from Romsey, across to Winchester and east to the Petersfield and Liss area.

Hampshire police recorded incidents of trees down on properties, cars and roads in the areas. No-one was hurt."

Also now being reported by Bournemouth Echo:

Romsey hit by mini tornado (From Bournemouth Echo): http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/34503/4717317

Edited November 3, 2009 by wallopweather

[Coast]

More updates available (remember this is the media reporting though! :ph34r: ):

A tornado caused damage to cars and buildings today when it swept through Hampshire, the Met Office said. Police and emergency services received scores of calls from midday until about 1.30pm as what was described as a tornado moved from Romsey, across to Winchester and east to the Petersfield and Liss area.

Hampshire police recorded incidents of trees down on properties, cars and roads in the areas, but no-one was injured. At least 25 trees were reported down, and electricity lines were also affected. One person called about trees down in Twyford near Winchester and told the operator: ''There is total carnage across the road.''

An elderly man who witnessed the freak weather suffered shock, a police spokeswoman said.

Shop worker Samantha Pritchard from Twyford Post Office in the village saw the tornado go past.

''All the leaves were swirling around in circles in the road and it was raining so heavily we could not see,'' she said.

''There were also trees knocked down further up the road.''

The tornado was accompanied by strong winds and torrential rain with several inches falling in minutes in Winchester. A Met Office spokeswoman said there had been several reports to them that the damage had been caused by a tornado.

www.dailyecho.co.uk

[Harry]

Several inches in minutes - love it!!!!

[Nick F]

The radar certainly showed some very interesting radar returns between 11:55am and 12:20pm - when the radar showed a hook echo return moving east between Romsey and Petersfield areas at the time when reports came in of the tornado:

T+00 fax for 12z today showed frontal wave across Hants with trough on northern side interacting with wave probably increasing the backed flow towards the surface and producing strong low-level shear over Hants around lunchtime which allowed updrafts to rotate/mesocyclone formation:

Some strong vertical velocity near south coast;

12Z Shoeburyness (SE Essex) radiosonde ascent showed there was some instability to be found ahead of the wave, with 191 j/kg CAPE, backing of winds towards surface, moist boundary layer with low LCLs (low LCL height conducive for tornadoes):

12z Larkhill (Wilts) radiosonde ascent showed a dry punch aloft on the back of the wave probably marking trough - this dry air intrusion would have increased potential instability near cold front with strong forced ascent of warm moist air:

All in all, best set-up for tornadoes I've seen for a long while, hence the SLIGHT risk issued in the N-W forecast last night for morning and early PM for Sern England. Sometimes a forecast mentioning risk of tornadoes doesn't always come to be realised, but it did today it seems.

[Nick F]

Looks like Tony Gilbert over on UKww is doing a site investigation tomorrow in Hampshire, should be interesting what he comes back with.

Nice to see the dreaded 'mini' prefix wasn't used by Jay Wynne when he mentioned the tornado earlier today in Hants on the weather after the 10 o'clock news.

[Cookie]

do Torro use their members to do investigations?

[The watcher]

Nice hook echo on the radar indeed....

I hate the expression 'mini tornado', its a Tornado, wether its rated from T0 - T10.

[Nick F]

Seems to be ingrained in the media world the 'mini' prefix, it just doesn't make sense in any context of a tornado weak or strong. Yesterday's damage path is reckoned to have been tornadic and is rated as T2, a moderate tornado, T2 equivalent to EF0 bordering into EF1. Looking at the damage photos of tree boughs snapped off there was nothing 'mini' about it. Site report from Tony Gilbert can be found here:

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=33244&posts=92&mid=482845#M482845

TORRO International Tornado Intensity Scale:

http://www.torro.org.uk/site/tscale.php

[The watcher]

Seems to be ingrained in the media world the 'mini' prefix, it just doesn't make sense in any context of a tornado weak or strong. Yesterday's damage path is reckoned to have been tornadic and is rated as T2, a moderate tornado, T2 equivalent to EF0 bordering into EF1. Looking at the damage photos of tree boughs snapped off there was nothing 'mini' about it. Site report from Tony Gilbert can be found here:

http://www.ukweather...=482845#M482845

TORRO International Tornado Intensity Scale:

http://www.torro.org...site/tscale.php

Do they even know that the UK has more Tornados per/sq mile than the USA?

Maybe they use the word 'mini' to make it feel like the UK is less partial and not as dramatic as the USA for tornados, thus keeping the public sane. Okay, most of our Tornados aren't even produced from a supercell, never mind as long lived as the USA's, but it only takes 1 second to damage something / kill someone. Plus the UK is more populated over its area than the USA, meaning more tornados here touch down in towns/citys, rather in the USA, most are in non-populated/farm land areas in the plains.

A T2 I would personally class as a weak tornado, it's equivalent to a weak F1 tornado, the danger would be from falling trees/debris and not houses blown to pieces.

I'm surprised Sean Casey and Reid Timmer weren't over with the TIV, a nice weak tornado for them to enter haha, it'd be like a breeze in the park.

[CardiffStorm]

I guess the media are just ignorant