The United Kingdom experiences more tornadoes than any other country in the world relative to its land area, however most tornadoes are relatively weak and rarely cause casualties or significant damage. The last "strong" tornado, one rated between T4 and T7 (F2 to F3), was a T5 which struck Greater Manchester on 27 December 2023.
Climatology The United Kingdom experiences more tornadoes than any other country in the world relative to its land area, a statistic first realised in 1973 by Japanese-American meteorologist Ted Fujita, who invented the Fujita scale. Despite holding this position, the country only has an average of 36.5 tornadoes annually, much lower than the United States' annual average of over 800. Furthermore, tornadoes in the UK often cause minimal damage and are very rarely fatal, with only 49 tornado deaths on record.
The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) is the UK's main organisation for tornado research and maintains an extensive database of tornadoes in the country. Founded in 1974 by meteorologist Terence Meaden, TORRO has grown to have around 400 members and carries out a number of activities including data collection, site investigations and research. The organisation uses the T-Scale, which was first proposed in 1972, to rate a tornado's intensity rather than the Fujita scale commonly used in other places.
Records The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation has kept track of tornadoes in the United Kingdom and Europe, and keeps record of many extremes. The earliest known tornado in the UK was a T8 on 17 October 1091. The earliest known waterspout in the UK, which is also the earliest known in all of Europe, occurred in June 1233 off southern England. The longest-track tornado in the UK was a T3 on 19 August 1881 which travelled from Upton, Lincolnshire, to Elsham, Lincolnshire. The widest tornado track in the UK was a T3 on 7 January 1998 in Selsey, which reached a width of . The most intense tornado in the UK was a T8-9 which passed through Lincolnshire on 23 October 1666. The deadliest tornado in the UK was a T7 on 27 October 1913 which killed 5 people in Abercynon and Edwardsville, Wales. The largest tornado outbreak in the UK and the world (outside the US) was on 23 November 1981, where 104 tornadoes were spawned within 5.25 hours. The costliest tornado in the UK was the 2005 Birmingham tornado, which caused £40 million of damage, equivalent to £ million in .
Events 1091 London tornado
On 17 October 1091, the earliest known tornado in the UK hit London, which had a population of under 20,000 at the time. The city's buildings were constructed mostly of wood, so the tornado, which has been rated T8 on the TORRO scale (equivalent to F4 on the Fujita scale), destroyed many of them with ease. Many structures were destroyed, including London Bridge, over 600 houses and many churches. The Church of St Mary-le-Bow was hit, killing two people inside it and lifting the roof into the air, with six of the timbers being fixed into the ground so deep that only about protruded.
1558 Nottingham tornado
On 17 or 21 July 1558, an estimated T7 tornado hit Sneinton, a village less than a mile from Nottingham, where at least six people were killed. As described in Holinshed's Chronicles, the tornado destroyed houses and churches in two towns, throwing bells outside of churchyards and carrying sheets of lead into a field. The water and mud from the River Trent was carried a quarter mile and thrown against trees, and trees were uprooted and carried 'twelve score'. A child was taken carried high and dropped, breaking his arm and killing him, whilst five or six other men nearby were also killed.
1666 Lincolnshire tornado
On 23 October 1666, the most intense tornado in the UK, which was rated at T8/9, hit the villages of Boothby Graffoe, Navenby, Welbourn and Wellingore in Lincolnshire. In 1749, Thomas Short described the tornado in his book A General Chronological History of the Air, Weather, Seasons, Meteors, &c. in Sundry Places and different Times. He said that in Welbourn it "levelled most of the houses to the ground, broke down some, and tore up other trees by the roots, scattering abroad much corn and hay". He also said a boy was killed before it hit Wellingore, where the tornado "overthrew some houses, and killed two children in them". Short continued, saying it "touched the skirts of Na[ve]nby, and ruined a few houses" before it hit Boothby Graffoe. There, he said it "dashed the church steeple in pieces, furiously rent the church itself, both stone and timber work, [and] left little of either standing, only the body of the steeple". He went on to say the tornado "threw down many trees and houses" before "it moved in a channel, not in great breadth". Short said it had "ruined a great part of that country" and that "it went through Nottinghamshire, where the hail-stones were nine inches about". He said "the whirlwind was about 60 yards broad" and that "on Nottingham Forest it brake down, and tore up at least 1000 trees, overthrew many wind-mills, overset boats on the Trent: And in a village of 50 houses, it left only 7 standing." A more recent report described some of the damage along the tornado's track: in Welbourn 44 houses were demolished; in Wellingore and Navenby many houses were demolished; and in Boothby Graffoe the church was partly destroyed and many houses were demolished.
1810 Portsmouth tornado
On 14 December 1810, a short-lived tornado rated T8, equivalent to an F4, struck Old Portsmouth in Hampshire, causing 'immense' damage. The Gentleman's Magazine reported that four houses on Southsea Common were levelled, with many others being so badly damaged that they had to be demolished, as well as 30 others being unroofed. Chimneys were blown down at Haslar Hospital and the Marine Barracks and the Government House and its Chapel were partly unroofed. Over 100 panes of glass were smashed in houses facing Grand Parade and the lead on a bank roof was "rolled up like a piece of canvas and blown from its situation".
1810 Diss tornado
On 18 December 1810, a tornado hit Diss where it tore up trees and unroofed houses. As the tornado passed over Diss Common it overturned a post-chaise coach and dashed it to pieces, injuring two of its occupants.
1840 Reading tornado
On 24 March 1840 a T5 tornado hit Reading railway station, just six days before it opened, where a man was killed. As the tornado was sighted coming along the railway track, a timekeeper was lifted and thrown against the bank and a railway engine was derailed. Coal which had been sucked out of the train's tender was flung in all directions, with one piece shattering a second timekeeper's collarbone. As the tornado reached the station itself, Henry West, a carpenter who was working on the station's roof, was killed after he was jammed into the space between two joints shortly before the framework of the roof was ripped off and carried , with his body found further down the line.
1870
On 19 October 1870, at least 18 tornadoes touched down in England and Wales. Four of these were rated T4 and ten were rated between T2 and T3. Some of the worst affected areas were Cowes, Kingsbridge and Westbury-sub-Mendip, where T4 tornadoes felled many trees and badly damaged numerous roofs.
1876 Cowes tornado
At around 7 a.m. on 28 September 1876, a tornado rated F3 struck Cowes on the Isle of Wight causing significant damage. After hitting Cowes, the tornado became a waterspout as it crossed The Solent before making landfall again in Hampshire, where a man was killed and a boy badly injured in Meonstoke; several people suffered injuries like broken limbs on Cowes.
The tornado first appeared as a waterspout off the coast of Brook which dissipated upon reaching land before reforming near Cowes. It is thought to have begun in Brixton at 7:15 a.m. where it destroyed outbuildings before moving on to Cowes, where it caused significant damage. The Globe Hotel was described as a 'ruin', with its front completely blown in and bedrooms exposed, and the neighbouring cottage was 'similarly demolished'; a Swedish captain who was asleep in the hotel at the time suffered a broken ankle, but the other occupants escaped unharmed. A cottage's iron railing was twisted and a nearby iron lamppost had been snapped, and a girl was lifted into the air on High Street before landing unharmed. Many boats were damaged and lifted, with one fisherman having his boat turned upon him. The Royal Pier's buildings were levelled, leading to its removal in 1882, and the Royal Pier Hotel suffered significant damage. The police station had all its windows and part of its walls blown in, as well as a two hundredweight of sheet lead lodged in its front parlour. Broken walls, crumbling chimeys and stripped roofs could be seen in all directions, and almost every window in the Catholic Chapel was broken. A slate was driven deep into a wooden windowsill, and the engine house at the terminus of the Cowes and Newport Railway, a large wooden building, was wrecked, with four heavy carriages blown onto their sides and the water tank smashed upon an engine. Scaffolding and brickwork at the then new Victoria Road Chapel was blown over and several hundred feet of the reservoir's parapet wall was knocked over. In the countryside, many large trees were uprooted, fences and hedges swept away, stacks overturned, barns raised and cottages renered uninhabitable after losing their roofs. Three men were injured at Broadfield's farm after being crushed beneath a collapsing barn, and as the twister continued to tear through the countryside it left a cottage demolished with just a staircase left standing. In Cowes, the damage was estimated to be around £12,000 ().
As the tornado crossed The Solent it dropped debris on a yacht which was more than offshore, with a brick hitting its forecastle deck. It made landfall again between Titchfield and Portsmouth in Hampshire about from Cowes. Crops like turnips were torn out of the ground and oak trees at Southwick Park near Fareham were uprooted before the twister caused significant damage to farms and homesteads in Meonstoke, where a man was killed and a boy injured. A farmhouse had all of its windows blown out and a barn was lifted bodily with a man inside it before it was converted into a heap of ruins; the man remarkably escaped. After wreaking havoc in Meonstoke, the tornado continued into the countryside and carried sheaves of wheat onto a hill as it tore a wide path through a thick copse, where it continued to uproot trees and underwood. The corners of ricks and cottages were described as being "cut off as if with a knife", iron troughs were carried , and gates were thrown into adjacent fields after being lifted off their hinges.
1913 Glamorgan tornado
During a tornado outbreak on 27 October 1913, an F3 tornado touched down in Mid Glamorgan, Wales, and travelled north for . The tornado had a track width of up to and caused extreme damage, with churches and chapels reportedly "razed to the ground" and houses "utterly demolished", as well as five deaths and many injuries, making it the deadliest on record in the UK.