On this day in 2005... Birmingham's F2 strength tornado

Today marks 18 years since the UK’s strongest tornado in modern history struck Birmingham delivering millions of pounds of damage in mere minutes.

July 28, 2005, was a day with thunderstorms expected but nothing out of the ordinary. At 02:30 pm an F2 strength tornado developed within the Sparkbrook area going on to rip through the city at speeds of 130 mph.

Wind speeds peaked at 137 mph, despite lasting only eight minutes and travelling just seven kilometres the tornado caused £40 million worth of damage while directly causing 19 injuries.

Over 1,000 trees were felled, homes saw roofs torn off while Christ Church in Sparkbrook was badly damaged and demolished.

Despite being the costliest tornado in the UK it was not the strongest. That award goes to an F4 strength tornado which hit Portsmouth in 1810 with winds reaching 240mph.

Relative to its land area, the UK sees more tornadoes than any other country behind just the Netherlands although most are far too weak for people to notice.

Instead, we commonly see the appearance of funnel clouds, as seen above near Scunthorpe. These form in much the same way as tornadoes, but do not make contact with the ground.

Once a funnel cloud touches the ground it becomes a tornado, or if over water a waterspout, as recently seen in Kent.