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Tornadoes
The UK gets 30–50 a year, mostly EF0/EF1. Survivable if you act fast.
Context
The UK has more tornadoes per square mile than the US, but they're almost all weak (EF0–EF1) and short-lived. London's 2006 NW10 tornado and Birmingham's 2005 Sparkbrook event were the recent reminders that EF2-strength damage *does* happen here. Most warnings come with very little notice — tornadic supercells are uncommon but not impossible during peak summer convective days.
When this matters
Met Office tornado mention in a thunderstorm warning, or you can directly see a wall cloud / lowering / rotating funnel from a thunderstorm.
Before
- Know your sturdiest small interior room on the lowest floor — bathrooms and under-stair cupboards are good. Reinforced concrete walls are best; brick is good; timber-framed is weakest.
- Keep shoes near your bed in summer. Glass and debris are the biggest injury cause after a tornado passes — you'll want to walk over it without cutting your feet.
- Sign up to Met Office NSWWS notifications for your postcode.
During
- Get to your interior room. Now. Don't try to film. Don't open windows (the old advice about "equalising pressure" is wrong — the tornado will do that for you, the seconds you waste cost lives).
- Cover yourself with a mattress, sleeping bag, or pillows. Most tornado injuries come from flying debris, not the wind itself.
- If you're in a vehicle and a tornado is visible: get out. Find a sturdy building. Never shelter under a bridge or overpass — wind speeds accelerate under bridges. If no building is available, lie flat in the lowest ground you can find, away from trees and vehicles.
- In a caravan or mobile home: leave immediately for a permanent structure. These are death-trap shelters.
After
- Don't enter damaged buildings without confirming structural integrity. Gas leaks are common after tornadoes.
- Smell of gas? Don't switch lights or use any electrical appliance — call 0800 111 999 (national gas emergency line) and leave the area.
- Photograph the damage path — direction, debris pattern, type of damage — before clean-up. UK tornado climatology is built from these citizen reports. Submit via TORRO or your chaseit member report.
UK specifics — numbers, sources
- TORRO maintains the UK tornado database and can be reached for damage assessments. Report at torro.org.uk.
- National Grid gas emergency: 0800 111 999.
- 999 / 112 for trapped persons or active rescue.
Watch the data
Live chaseit feeds relevant to this hazard:
General guidance. Your specific circumstances may vary — follow the Met Office, Environment Agency / SEPA / NRW, your local council, and emergency services for situation-specific direction. See the code of conduct for chasers in the field.