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Birmingham Tornado Of 14th June 1931


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Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam

Mid June 1931 was very turbulent with severe thunderstorms breaking out over many parts bringing large hail, squally wind, torrential rain and local flooding. One such thunderstorm struck Birmingham bringing a tornado which cause a death and damage.

The tornado first struck at about 2.20pm in the Sparkhill district of the city along a track varying from 200 to 800 yeards wide passing through Greet, Small Heath and Bordesley in a NEly direction. The track was about 12 miles long.

Some eye witness accounts

Neville Hall of Hall Green, Birmingham

"Here in Bromyard Rd at about 3.50pm, the rain increased and at 4 o'clock was coming down in torrents. About 3 minutes later we heard a howl as wind makes and immediately the air as full of twigs, leaves and small branches. Four little girls coming home from Sunday school were blown flat and shot along the wet pavement like bits of paper. My motorcycle and sidecar standing in the gutter was turned upside down. All our garden fences were flattened."

J.R.Sayers of Hall Green

"About 4pm, a curious lull in the great black thunderstorm then raging caused me instinctively to run to the window facing north and I was just in time to see some 20ft high trees shudder and then all bow to the ground, one immediately in front of me breaking off at the root. Instantly the air appeared full of objects, great and small flying in a northerly direction, broken vegetation, tiles, masonry and my neighbour's garage roof included...I estimate that the duration of this great blast of air was 15 to 20 seconds."

Charles Duval, Small Heath

"I happened to be looking at the sky at the moment of the tornado's arrival here and saw a small black cloud travelling from the south at a terrific speed. I called my wife to see it and within a few seconds the wind arrived. The wind stopped my clock at 4.20pm, as with the first gust the front door blown open and it took three f us to close it."

E. Dwyer, Small Heath

"The whirlwind made its approach, it was similiar to the noise of six aeroplanes in the air together and was a great black cloud, rolling an twisting appearance."

F. Smith of Sparkhill

"The tornado appeared from a dense mass of grey clouds..all outlying clouds rushing to one spot. This mass of cloud suddenly began to rush across the sky and formulated a funnel which hung suspended from the mass and reached the housetops. At the same time all sorts of missliles flew upwards towards it. It rushed across faster than I have evere seen clouds move before."

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Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)

No you tube forecast for that day?blum.gif

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Posted
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms, squally fronts, snow, frost, very mild if no snow or frost
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)

Those row of houses incredible damage, what scale was that tornado? i have read that the earthquake could have added some unseen internal structural damage to the houses and this causing the tornado to cause more damage, the thing is it would be very worrying and scary knowing(as severe and unusual as the storms were anyway)if it was all tornado damage, that this cam occur over here, it seems from the historic events and modern events that these storms are more likely to produce tornados in certain areas, it must be the lay of the land i would think, there was a historic violent storm in Guildford, that caused severe damage, if i find it online are post it in a thread.

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  • 10 years later...
Posted
  • Location: South East UK
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms/squalls/hoar-frost/mist
  • Location: South East UK
On 07/07/2012 at 06:19, Weather-history said:

Birmingham must be the UK's capital for tornadoes

 

 

On the ITN news coverage 5th July 1999 the chap who mentioned the tail coming across like a dervish, you may of edited it out but at the end of that report, I remember him saying it was just a one off "it will never had again" LOL

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