Tornado Strike

[Tinkicker]

Power went out about 17:30.  I was upstairs and looked out of the bedroom window and I never saw the like.  A car was coming down the street with headlights on and was hit by apparently buckets full of water and stopped.  10 seconds later such a wind, everything flying around on the road in the car lights.  It has moved one of our sheds about six feet into the house wall.  Back garden full of assorted wood including a full length staircase handrail from next door who are renovating the house.  These things have flown over a six foot wall.

 

The entire house shook and I thought the window was going to blow in.  10 seconds later it was gone.  Soddin scary, I never saw the like before.

 

Apart from minor stuff, we at the moment seem to have got away with minor inconveniences.  Next door have lost about two dozen tiles from the roof and a wooden shed toppled over.  I guess it just missed us.

 

Power is off in the entire village, just lots of torches shining around.  Luckily we have the standby generator wired into the house and have power and heat for now.

Expect much knocking on the door for flasks filling with hot water as the night progresses.

 

We will see what the morning brings......

[Bender]

Glad your all ok which is main thing 

[onesea]

Tornadoes in the UK but as uncommon as you would think. 

 

"Between 1980 and 2012, England experienced 2.2 tornadoes per year per 10,000 square kilometres (3,861 square miles) – which equates to one per every 4,545 square kilometres (1,754 square miles) annually. By comparison, the entire USA (including the non-contiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii) experienced 1.3 tornadoes annually per the same area – or one per 7,693 square kilometres (2,970 square miles)."

 

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-tornadoes-by-area#:~:text=Between 1980 and 2012%2C England,(1%2C754 square miles) annually.

 

With a warning atmosphere there will be more energy to create bigger, more or more intense tornadoes. 

 

Glad your ok.

[bud]

Sounds just like the famous storm we had in 87. No water for two days. No electricity for nearly a week. Trees down everywhere.

The aftermath was quite something to see.

[Simon Davey]

Strewth @Tinkicker glad you're OK.

[Tinkicker]

Power back on now.   Need a full inspection tomorrow to see what damage occurred.  But after the shit flying round and the generator started, it was a bit of a non occurence.  We had a beer or five and watched telly..

Should I feel smug when watching candles flickering in everyonelse's windows, or feel that my efforts in always ensuring the generator was ready to go and serviced 3 times a year.  We had an asda delivery, and apparentltly our house had the only leccy in five miles in each direction. Worth it?  I am always the guy that says " what if"?    Unfortunately, what if needs considerable effort and planning.

Edited December 5, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Bender]

I grew up with labour induced power cuts, we've always had a generator for backup, back then it was my dad's and it was on a trailer and big enough to power half the street, enjoy the smugness  

[Tinkicker]

Next door but one have two wooden six foot gates.  Apparently they have gone missing.....  Maybe I will find them in my back garden...

 

Nothing I can write here can convey the absolute power of what I just witnessed.   You know I am a bit of a jet fighter pilot... F 14 tomcat on full afterburner.. Not even close.

Edited December 5, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

Had a good look around this morning.  We have a tile off next to the chimney, right under the ridge tile.  The top row of bricks on the chimney is missing on one side, and we have several lifted tiles at the rear.  The gate latch strap has broken, it has torn off the steel plate roof on the garden lampost, bolts were rusty and snappped, and thrown it across the garden (thing weighs about 5kg), a broken tile on the front porch, presumably where the upper tile landed on it.

 

We found a ripped off hinge from next door but ones ripped off 6ft garden gates in the front garden and one of the gates was found in someones garden about 50 yards down the road.  The other was laying in the road nearby.  Our gates withstood it, apart from the broken latch, which is a miracle.

 

Both next door neighbours houses gable ends faced into wind and have lost about 40 tiles in a patch from the gutter to about half way up the pitch, luckily our gable end was in the lee of the wind.  This is a common theme in a swath about 200 metres across through the village.  The village looks like a village in the somme during ww1 with all the holes in the roof.

 

I flagged down a passing roofers van, on his way to do an estimate and he thought it was a one off job.  He cannot believe what he is seeing..

 

Anyways, our repair £375.  We got lucky.  Many houses have £1000s worth of damage.  We have removed around 20 assorted kiddies toys, broken exterior xmas decorations and stuff like tennis balls from the garden that were not there before.

 

I never saw the like before.  For 10 seconds the whole house shook and I really thought the windows were coming in, not that you could see out by then, it was like someone throwing buckets of water at the window.  You could just about see the car headlights stopped outside on the road, apart from that, everywhere was pitch black.  God knows what that poor driver thought..  I bet it was trying to pick the car up.

 

[Fiddlesticks]

Wow! Good job you weren't on the bike when that hit.

[Simon Davey]

Jeeeeeeeeeez, sod that. 

[Tinkicker]

A picture you have seen before.  The bike is not the focus this time.  The gates are very similar to next door but one, and the hinges identical, ours survived, theirs did not.  Look at the hinges.  Our front garden is probably 30 yards from theirs, yet we found one of those in our garden..

 

 

A big bit of metal to be flying around.  What amazes me most is that we have had two huge gates and miriad objects flying around, from bricks and roof tiles, to tennis balls and not one of our cars was damaged.  One was parked on the road with two heavy gates flying overhead.  The other is in the drive, surrounded by bits of mortar and broken roof tile.  But not a single ding.

Edited December 6, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Tinkicker]

As for the bike, it slept on unconcerned. The new shed roof withstood the wind as did the solar charging system.  We are still coming across stuff that is damaged.

This morning, the missus said the back gate will not open.  Seems the shiplap planks on the gate have been sprung essentially making the gate wider than the opening.  A clout with a hammer to push the nails back in and a few woodscrews to hold the planks in place will sort it.  No biggie.

Edited December 7, 2024 by Tinkicker

[Simon Davey]

Darn, you've reminded me, I'd better check my solar panels. They're only bolted to a tin roof. They're pretty much facing the current gale. 

[Fozzie]

Glad you are alright, and you have a backup power source. I keep a small Honda generator and Ecoflow battery for this exact reason, can't be without heat in winter.

95mph winds hit some areas. I watched the storm on the weather radar, and it broadside us as it came off the Atlantic, and then promptly did a big rotation and came back down on us for round 2. 

 

My flat has some water ingress, but fortunately just due to a damaged chimney stack. Not a great expenditure. 

 

[S-Westerly]

My son lost his front fence. Narrowly missed hitting the cars. Fortunately he's only just had his roof and chimney stack renewed. Probably have had serious issues with them otherwise.