Sussex town was hit by tornado, experts confirm

A tornado swept through an East Sussex coastal town at the weekend, causing "substantial damage" to homes in the area, experts have confirmed.

The severe weather event happened on Saturday in Seaford, with East Sussex Fire & Rescue called to Victor Close at about 06:30 GMT.

The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro) said "preliminary findings" showed the track of the rotating column of air to be about 1.3km (0.8 miles) long, and it likely started as a waterspout before making landfall.

Torro site investigator Sarah Horton, who confirmed the event was a tornado after visiting Seaford, told BBC Radio Sussex she saw "a trail of damage", which had begun at the seafront and moved across the east of the town.

She said: "It ranged from a few tiles to smashed windows... to much more significant roof damage and some substantial property damage."

She said two pairs of garages lost their roofs, which were "carried some distance and caused nasty secondary damage".

Ms Horton said tornadoes were not uncommon in the UK, having last had a report in Milford on Sea, Hampshire, in November.

She explained: "It's not terribly rare, perhaps a couple of events a year. If you've got an unstable atmosphere you can get vigorous showers.

"Add in some wind shear, which is where winds are changing their speed and direction with height, that rising air can sometimes tighten into a waterspout.

"If it makes landfall, then we call it a tornado."

She said the events could last from "a few seconds to maybe half a minute" and were very hard to forecast.

BBC senior weather presenter Alexis Green said: "Tornados usually form with thunderstorms and are a rapidly rotating column of air that reaches between the base of a storm cloud and the Earth's surface.

"They typically spin anti-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and have a track of about a mile [1.6km].

"On average there are around 30-35 tornados a year in the UK and they vary in intensity. Wind speeds range from 75mph to 100mph [121kmh to 161kmh].

"Tornado forecasting is an evolving science, there is ongoing research in to improving the understanding and forecasting of them."

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