Weather extremes: A brief history of UK tornadoes

Tornadoes in the UK are not an uncommon occurrence with around 30 every year. You might not hear about them but how much do you know about tornadoes in the UK?

While November 23rd 1981 saw the largest UK tornado outbreak, the second largest tornado outbreak occurred just a month before on October 20th when 29 tornadoes spawned between Somerset eastwards to Sussex and Kent.

The longest track of a tornado was 32 km when an EF 1 tornado travelled from Upton to Elsham in Lincolnshire on 19th August 1881.

An EF 2 tornado also travelled 30.2 km between Ardmore, Co. Armagh to Loanends, Co. Antrim in Northern Ireland on 31st December 2006.

The award for the widest tornado goes to an EF2 tornado that occurred on January 7th 1998 in West Sussex. This tornado had a maximum width of 900 metres at landfall from a waterspout before narrowing to 600 metres while moving back into the English Channel.

Finally, tornadoes are known to be one of the most deadliest natural phenomenon to spawn. The deadliest tornado on record for the UK occurred on October 27th 1913 where five people were killed in Abercynon and Edwardsville in Merthyr Tydfil.