TORNADO HITS A WELSH FARM
STRONG winds that caused “at least £100,000” of damage to a Welsh farm have been confirmed as a tornado, according to experts. The extreme weather struck Gogarth Hall Farm in Pennal, near Machynlleth, on Wednesday, uprooting trees and lifting a ewe and lambs into the air.
The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro) said it had investigated the site and believed that the damage was caused by a T3 tornado.
Investigator John Mason said objects had spun around before falling to the ground.
“The tornado was confirmed as there was plenty of evidence of objects being airborne and spinning around the circulation before falling to the ground,” he said.
He added he believed it had a strength of between 93mph and 114mph.
Deilwen Breese, owner of Gogarth Hall Farm, said she was away from the farm when she received a phone call telling her to come home.
Ms Breese told the PA news agency she did not realise the scale of the damage until she got back.
“I thought it was just that part of the roof had gone,” she said.
“But oh my god, when I came home I could not believe it.”
Ms Breese said she was still in shock from the incident.
“The devastation, it was heartbreaking,” she said.
“I am still in shock, really.”
She added: “Trees had been lifted from their roots. If they hadn’t been lifted they had just been tarnished. “We have lost hundreds of trees.” The winds were so strong that a ewe and its lambs were lifted into the air
Ms Breese said: “It took a ewe out through the bay of a shed, and it picked up the little lambs.”
She said the lambs were fine, but the ewe was “gone”.
Ms Breese said the damage to the roof was “about £100,000”.
“When I got to the farm I could see the.damage to the roof, it’s about £100,000 worth of damage on the roof.”
She said a group of 12 local volunteers were now helping her clear the devastation.
However, Ms Breese feels the farm will not be the same.
She said: “It’s going to take months – it will never get back, not in my lifetime. It will never come back to what it was.”