Stalybridge is only the latest tornado victim

A “WHIRLWIND of madness” was how residents described the Stalybridge tornado this week.

Shocked onlookers, who saw roofs peel back like sardine tin lids and trees and lamp-posts topple like bowling pins in the Greater Manchester town, said they had never seen anything like it.

This country actually has a long history of tornados: the earliest on record was in 1091 when the newly built St Mary-le-Bow church in

London was severely damaged by a fierce tornado that also levelled homes.

In August 1881, a tornado swept almost 20 miles from Upton to Elsham in Lincolnshire, making it the longest on record in Britain. Lincolnshire also suffered what is believed to be the most intense tornado ever to hit the UK, in October 1666 in Welbourn.

In 1972, Dr Terence Meaden, founder of the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation, (Torro) proposed creating a Tornado Intensity Scale. Similar to the Beaufort Wind Scale, it rates tornados from one to 10. However, few anemometers survive a tornado intact so the scale is often applied once investigators have sifted through reports of the damage.

Torro, which has helpfully compiled a detailed history of British tornados, has retrospectively applied the scale to centuries of weather events. The aforementioned Welbourn tornado has been ranked as an eight on the scale, meaning wind speeds of 213-240mph. The Stalybridge tornado has been awarded a provisional maximum damage rating of five (wind speeds from 137mph to 160mph).

This weekend, I’m afraid, the stormy weather persists. Today, a band of low pressure sweeps in from the west. Tomorrow, expect high winds in the south. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of

Oz we have been swept up by a tornado and will land in the new year with a bump.*

Tornado damage at Stalybridge