The swarm of violent winds and tornados across central and southern England is a sign that autumn has arrived with vengeance. The mayhem erupted from a violent cold front, typical of September when invasions of cold polar air collide with hot air from the seas, which are still very warm.

This particular weather front swept in from the west and sucked up hot, wet air from around the Bay of Biscay, chased by much colder air that ploughed underneath, thrusting the warm air high into the atmosphere and bursting into dark storm clouds and violent downpours of rain.

The other key ingredient for the tornados was a clash of winds from different directions and speeds that sent the weather into a spin, rather like whirling a toy spinning top between a thumb and finger.

Surface winds of some 40km/h (25mph) from the south clashed with westerly winds of some 120km/h (75mph) about 1km above, driven by a very vigorous jet stream winds several kilometres high in the atmosphere. As the air was sent rolling around in this melee, it span off into tornados, or thrust downwards as violent squalls of winds, either of which could have caused the destruction in Luton, Farnborough, Nuneaton, and other places.

The Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro) are sending out teams of investigators to find out how many tornados were involved by plotting damage.

“We won’t know whether tornados or squally winds were responsible until we make site investigations to plot the tracks and sizes of the damage,” explained Paul Knightley, forecaster at Torro. "But we saw issued a tornado warning at the end of last week because the conditions were so right for tornadic activity."

But the worst may be yet come. A new study published by Torro reveals that the peak season for our tornados is in the autumn, and the most powerful often come in the winter.

“This is definitely the right time of year, coming into autumn, for tornados,” explains researcher Peter Kirk of Torro. “At this time of year the sea temperatures are relatively warm and kicks off instability in the atmosphere, sending strong weather fronts towards the UK.”

FACTFILE

The largest tornado outbreak in the UK was on November 21, 1981 when 105 tornadoes touched down in a period of just over 5 hours as a cold front crossed a comparatively small part of England from north-west to south-east.

The longest tornado track in the UK was on 21 May 1950 when a tornado ran for 107 km, extending from Little London, Buckinghamshire to Coveney, Cambridgeshire.

The widest UK tornado was on September 22, 1810 at Fernhill Heath, Hereford & Worcester, and was up to 1.6 km wide.

The most intense UK tornado probably was on September 22, 1810, tracked from Old Portsmouth to Southsea Common, Hampshire, which demolished houses.

The deadliest tornado was on October 27 1913, Edwardsville, Glamorgan and killed 6 people.

The country with the highest number of reported tornadoes per unit area is England, in an area corresponding roughly with Oklahoma, but most of the UK's tornados are far weaker than in the US.

(Source: Torro)

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