KNUTTON, United Kingdom – A home security camera caught a possible tornado in the United Kingdom on Monday morning. The wind flipped a camper and peeled roofs off homes.
The homeowner told local media, Stoke-on-Trent Live, that he had just left for work when his Ring camera alerted him. He looked at the camera’s feed and found his camper on its side.
“I now have no fence panels, and my garden shed is in next door’s garden,” homeowner Dave Hemmings told the reporter. “The main thing is nobody was hurt.”
It was an early morning wakeup call for those in Staffordshire village. Hemmings, whose camera caught the violent winds just before 6:30 a.m. local time, told Storyful that the “freak weather event” caused “carnage and destruction all along his street.”
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An hour later, another potential tornado about 50 miles west tore roof tiles off homes and damaged garages and outbuildings in the West Bridgeford area of Nottingham, according to the Daily Mail. Torro, a tornado and storm research non-profit, posted on social media that it received the two reports.
The U.K. Met Office told the Daily Mail that meteorologists would need to study the damage to be able to confirm whether a tornado or a squall caused it.
“Today, there have been some reports of some particularly impactful winds,” Stephen Dixon of the Met Office told the Daily Mail. “The fronts that were moving southwards this morning had some potential for some short-lived tornadoes within them, but we would need to assess the impact.”
He said that the U.K. generally sees about 30 tornadoes a year, generally short-lived.
The U.K. Met Office issued a Yellow Warning for wind around the time of the first potential tornado, which stretched through Monday night.
“Gusts of between 40 and 45 mph are expected widely inland with isolated gusts as high as 50 to 55 mph on exposed coasts and near to heavier showers,” the warning stated. “This is likely to lead to some disruption and longer journey times.”
Meteorologists warned of large battering waves and sea spray along the coast as well as widespread road, rail, air and ferry travel disruptions.
Several bridges were closed including the Severn Bridge connecting England to Wales. Officials stop traffic when winds hit or exceed 46 mph.
Officials also closed several parks, tourist sites, markets and golf clubs across much of Great Britain due to strong winds. The Daily Mail called London’s Kew Gardens’ closure the most high profile. The Met Office told the media that it detected 450 lightning strikes hitting the ground on Monday morning alone.
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The Met Office reported that winds will slowly ease through the evening.