Significant tornado tracks through Birmingham, UK

I can not comment on the source of the BBC tornado images - if one of them is yours then email them!

Due to the research that TORRO (http://www.torro.org.uk) in the UK have done over the last 30 years we know that we get on average 33 tornados per year – which is not bad considering the size of the UK. We tend to have high shear / low instability environments but yesterday we had surface obs of 24T/19Td and this released a fair amount of cape.

Here is the front page of one of our newspapers which gives you an idea of the damage caused in Birmingham.

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More European tornadoes yesterday

Media report: near Auxerre, France, at least 14 people were injured because of a tornado. Furthermore there was lots of damage to houses and trees in Montlupon. The hail was described as grapefruit-sized.

Part from the Estofex forecast for today:
"If low level depression develops over central Germany, broad backing wind field north of this depression can be expected...in fact, low level shear of 15m/s +, 0-1 SRH values of 200 - locally 400 m**2/s**2 ( especially next to retreating warm front )and low LCLs would be more than adequate for each storm to organize...if this backing wind field can be established, discrete cell evolution can be expected whith main threat being very large hail, severe wind gusts and a few tornadoes - one or two of them could be strong."
http://estofex.met.fu-berlin.de/outlook/ht...07282119cf.html
 
I never even stopped to think of that. For some weird reason I didnt think the UK's climate favored tornadic development-guess I was wrong. I know that several places in Europe occaisonally see tornadoes, but never knew it was possible in England.
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We do get a few, and some of us (approx 30) have been chasing them for a fair few years now, however I have not even got close! One day... :)

Regards
Terry
 
We do get a few, and some of us (approx 30) have been chasing them for a fair few years now, however I have not even got close! One day... :)

Regards
Terry
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Who knows Terry, perhaps the number of tornadoes is increasing here in northwestern Europe.
The Netherlands roughly gets about 20 full grown tornado/spout reports each year. Most of them are landspouts or cold core tornadoes.
This table is from An updated estimate of tornado occurrence in Europe by Nikolai Dotzek:
Table 1: Tornadoes over land, per country per year. First two data columns give the average number based on observations, the second two give an estimate of the expected “trueâ€￾ number.
For the last countries in the list, only estimates by T. Meaden were available. (excuse me for the layout of this table)
Observation Estimations
Country min max min max
Albania 0 0 2 2
Austria 3 3 5 5
Belgium 2 5 5 10
Bulgaria 1 3 2 2
Czech Republic 7 7 10 10
Estonia 8 11 8 11
Finland 5 5 10 10
France 8 8 10 30
Germany 10 10 30 30
Greece 6 6 8 10
Hungary 8 9 10 13
Ireland 10 10 10 11
Italy 15 15 12 18
Latvia 1 4 3 7
Lithuania 1 1 3 5
Netherlands 20 20 35 35
Poland 4 4 5 6
Portugal 1 2 3 3
Romania 1 1 3 3
Russia (Europ.) 4 5 8 10
Slovakia 1 1 4 4
Slovenia 1 1 1 1
Spain 8 12 30 30
Switzerland 2 2 3 3
United Kingdom 33 33 50 50
Norway and Sweden n/a n/a 5 5
Denmark n/a n/a 2 2
Malta and Cyprus n/a n/a 2 2
Total 160 178 279 328
 
Who knows Terry, perhaps the number of tornadoes is increasing here in northwestern Europe.
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Would be nice to think so, but maybe reports have become a little higher due to easier/better communications?

Good video of the tornado here:

http://edge.channel4.com/news/2005/07/week.../28_tornado.wmv

Regards
Terry

edit - sorry, misread the table and understand there are estimated figures as well!
 
Mini tornado ... say no more, same deal here with the media.

Stuart - I hope you don't mind, I posted some of the links regarding this significant event you put up on a Australia Weather forum - as many do not have access to Stormtrack.

Thanks
 
More media misinformation

Tidbits like this one from the BBC article do not help when it comes to educating the public about severe weather:

"A Met Office spokesperson said... City centres are not the natural habitat of a tornado; the tall buildings would normally stop their formation." :roll:
 
I heard the news media refer to a video of one of these (it was the video where the cameraman was lying down filming it to protect himself) as a "mini-tornado".

What the heck is a mini-tornado? Either it's a tornado or it isn't. The way this was reported, I had no idea whether they were talking about a legit tornado or a dust devil. LOL.
 
What the heck is a mini-tornado? Either it's a tornado or it isn't. The way this was reported, I had no idea whether they were talking about a legit tornado or a dust devil. LOL.
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As far as I can see, a "mini-tornado" is a tornado that's "not as big as those ones on TV" (i.e. in the U.S.). At least, that's why Australians seem to give tornadoes that name — when they're not using the more lecherous "mini-cyclone."
 
Reports just coming in but what appears to be a T3/4 (Low F2) has this afternoon tracked across the metropolitan are of South East Birmingham today.
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ESTOFEX has this tornado unofficially listed as an F1.

EDIT: Just to clarify, they have not yet conducted an on-site damage survey, but have it listed as an F1 (no TORRO number listed yet) unofficially

http://www.tordach.org/cgi-bin/events.cgi
 
I have been very busy this last week investigating the tornadoes of 28th July. This has involved "doing the ground work" and actually walking the damage tracks in order to determine track length, width and intensely.

So far there was three confirmed tornados – 2 of which could be considered Violent for the UK

Birmingham – 14:30pm F0/T1 then F2/T5 – 8.2 miles
This cell first span up an brief tornado that lasted just over 1.5miles and did not hit really hit anything in order for it to be rated
http://www.torro.org.uk/stu/20050728/brumt...n/tornado1b.jpg

It then went on to “apparently Wedge†over the SW part of the city where the damage is F2/T5 with a 400 meter track width. One of the many badly damaged buildings was a school that lost its roof and most of the first floor. Fortunately due to it being summer vacation it was empty – otherwise I dread to think what might have happened.
(Credit to John Mason, TORRO and to Ian Dunsford for the images)
http://www.torro.org.uk/stu/20050728/brum1.jpg
http://www.torro.org.uk/stu/20050728/brum2.jpg

Wymondham, Leicestershire – 16:19pm F1/T2 1.75 miles
I have interviewed a witness (train signal operator) who saw the tornado form less than 150 meters form his station (confirmed by damage survey). The tornado then passed to his west and then north before crossing the railway line – felled trees across the line cause then closed the line. T2 rating given due to the size of the trees that it snapped. There is some evidence to suggest that this was a anti cyclonic tornado!

Peterborough 16:45 F2/T3
The tornado formed within the North suburbs of the town before moving across open countryside. (this area is very flat and it reminds me of the plains!) it caused much building damage within the city limits but really intensified over open countryside. This was (IMO) a clear Supercell (image shows tornado north of city just prior to dissipating) sorry I spoilt the image by drawing lines all over it!
http://www.torro.org.uk/stu/20050728/Petet...etorn/scell.JPG
 
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