A look at the Jersey tornado that ploughed a path of destruction across the east of the islands on 1st November and was rated T6 by TORRO, equivalent to an EF3 tornado. Also some quotes from a resident who experienced the full force of the tornado and Storm Ciaran's strong winds that followed.
Storm Ciaran crossed the far south of England during the morning of Thursday 2nd November. Before the strongest winds on the south and southwestern side of the unusually deep low hit the Channel Islands, northwest France and further east through the English Channel, some severe thunderstorms developed over the western English Channel in the unstable warm and moist southerly flow ahead of the approaching deepening low.
One of these severe thunderstorms produced large hail and a rare strong tornado that ploughed a path of destruction across part of the island of Jersey Wednesday night prior. Initially a lot of TV News Broadcasts made out that the violent winds that ripped off roofs of houses, threw cars around and blew windows in on houses were part of the strong gusts that developed in the tight pressure gradient as the intense low passed to the north Thursday morning. However, even though there were gusts over 90mph on the island Thursday morning, it was actually the tornado earlier overnight that caused the most damage. The tornado was rated T6 on the TORRO scale, equivalent of an EF3 tornado strength on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
It was not just Jersey that saw a tornado associated with Storm Ciaran, whose circulation affected much of Europe between 1st and 4th November, 9 tornadoes were reported across Europe, two of which were EF3 strength. One was the Jersey tornado, the other was a strong tornado that struck Lavino in Bulgaria on the 4th. On Thursday 2nd November, a tornado also struck West Sussex coastal area near North Lancing, rated T2.
But concentrating on the Jersey tornado, a preliminary investigation was carried out by TORRO (The Tornado & Storm Research Organisation) and Jersey Met Service. The tornado struck a path of destruction approximately 5 miles long through the eastern side of the island through the communities of St Clement, Le Boulivot, St Martin and Fliquet. Their preliminary rating for the tornado damage was an intensity of T6. The criteria for T6 are listed below but the T scale for all ratings can be found here https://www.torro.org.uk/research/tornadoes/tscale
More on the preliminary investigation carried out by TORRO and the Jersey Met Service can be found here
A member of the Netweather forum, Stevie Fitz, a resident on Jersey, shared with us his account of the tornado Wednesday night prior to the arrival of Storm Ciaran and the strong winds brought by the storm itself Thursday morning - he echoed other residents suggesting Storm Ciaran was as bad if not worse than the storm on 16th October 1987: "Having experienced The Great Storm of 1987, Storm Ciaran equalled its intensity, and in some ways, surpassed it with its longevity and ferociousness, including the destructive tornado that occurred in the South-East of the island on the night of Wednesday 1st November 2023, which was a prelude of what was to come during the early morning of Thursday 2nd.”
The severe thunderstorms moved across the Channel Islands late on Wednesday evening and were accompanied by gusty winds and large hail stones: “we began to experience an intense thunderstorm, the likes of which I cannot recall experiencing here in Jersey. A surprise lull in windspeed, frequent lightning and an explosive thunderclap heard directly over our home heralded the start of 5 or so minutes of golf ball sized hail which sounded like the house was being pelted with large stones”.
Then came the tornado: “Not long after the hail had stopped, we noticed it was eerily silent outside and on checking social media again just before midnight, a video had been posted by a St Clements resident near to FB playing Fields showing what appeared to be a wrap-around rainband moving from left to right filmed from their bedroom window and what later turned out to be the roof of the local tennis club being ripped from the rafters, high into the air. We both immediately thought tornado, but the thought didn’t register as we’ve never experienced a tornado here. Waterspouts, yes, tornado, no. Impossible!”
The thunderstorms moved on followed by a relative calm, but later in the night, strong winds from the tightening isobars on the southern flank of the deepening low arriving just to the north over SW England began to hit: “From thereon in, the wind outside began to steadily increase again and by 03:00, we were hearing increasing numbers of banging and crashing noises outside together with our roof tiles being lifted up and down with a familiar regularity, including at one point, a sound like dominos being toppled over which later turned out to be two tiles that had slid from the middle of our roof down to the guttering above our garden back door where they had become precariously wedged. The hours between 04:00 and 06:00 were the most uncomfortable as the noise of the wind outside coupled with the stronger ‘house shaking’ gusts were intense and it was at this point, we realized that the major incident declaration issued by the Government of Jersey in the incredibly early hours was truly justified.”
On the Thursday, once the storm passed, Stevie took a drive to look at the damage from the night before: “Driving into St Ouen’s passed St Ouen’s Manor was like a scene from an apocalypse with the grounds of the Manor and the adjacent road littered with foliage, snapped branches and fallen trees which we weaved between to get us to one of the main roads leading down to St Ouen’s Bay.” Further on more damage: “where once stood the Padel Tennis Club structure, now an unrecognizable mangled mess of metal framework which was our first indication of how powerful the tornado had been.” More damage likely from the tornado was spotted: “We continued straight on to the almost empty car park situated at the near end of the track and field arena, also home to The Jersey Tennis Club building that had lost a good third of its roof.”
It became increasingly apparent to Stevie that the damage was not the usual damage from strong damaging straight line wind gusts but more indicative of a strong tornado: “scanning our eyes across the playing fields looking North, we noticed a scattering of debris across the centre of the playing fields, including pieces of wood and metal together with two football goals that had been toppled over at either end of the central football pitch. There were gouges in the grass ranging in size together with wooden beams and shards of wood (presumably from the roof of the tennis club) that had been driven deep into the earth. We attempted to pull one of the pieces of wood from the ground but with no success due to the fact they were so deeply embedded.”
Many thanks to Stevie Fitz for providing his account of the tornado and the strong winds from Storm Ciaran. Must have been quite frightening to experience at the time, especially as it was dark. I remember experiencing the full force of the Great Storm of October 1987 in the dark too, with the deafening noise of the wind, fences being blown around and tiles moving and falling off the roof.
Tornadoes are no stranger to the UK. Afterall, the UK has more tornadoes by area than any other country. However, most tornadoes in the UK are weak and strong ones like the one in Jersey on the 1st November are rare. The USA has many more strong tornadoes. Tornadoes in the UK are particularly prevalent in the autumn around our coasts, thanks to warm sea surface temperatures still from the summer contrasting to rapidly cooling airmasses as we approach winter creating strong instability.
Some of the more notable tornadoes in the past were the Birmingham, UK, tornado of Wednesday 28 July 2005, (which was rated T5/6) and the Gunnersbury (West London) tornado of Wednesday 8 December 1954, which was rated T7 (the strongest ever rated). There have already been 4 confirmed tornadoes this autumn in southern UK. More on tornadoes investigated by TORRO in the past can be found here
What annoys me is when they are called ‘mini-tornadoes’ by the media, even the destructive one that hit Jersey last week was referred to by the BBC as mini! They should know better having trained meteorologists presenting the weather to consult. There is nothing mini about any tornado, even weak ones can be dangerous.
Top photo of some of the damage caused by the tornado in Jersey, uploaded by Fitzwis to the Netweather Community
