Suspected tornado rips trees from ground and brings roof tiles down

Suspected tornadoes hit parts of the Midlands on Monday as stormy weather brought chaos to the UK.

Images from Stoke-on-Trent and Nottinghamshire showed garden fences destroyed, trees ripped up and tiles ripped from roofs.

The Met Office said weather fronts moving southwards “had the potential for short-lived tornadoes to develop which could have caused impacts for some”.

“Due to how short-lived these features are, they often aren’t captured by radar imagery so can only be assessed by looking at the evidence on the ground,” said a spokesman.

Around 30 tornadoes are reported in the UK every year, and are generally short-lived, the weather service said.

A resident of Knutton, in Stoke-on-Trent, told the BBC the extreme weather “must have been a tornado”. Heather Foster said she had heard a “mighty woosh” at 6am, followed by banging.

It comes after the UK had its hottest day of the year so far over the weekend, with temperatures near Chelmsford, Essex, reaching 71.24F (21.8C).

The Met Office said road and rail delays were likely, with coastal routes and seafronts affected by spray and large waves, while some communities could see a short-term loss of power.

Tuesday would be drier with sunny spells and scattered showers, mostly in the north and west but also across the south and east, and would continue to feel chilly with blustery winds, according to the weather service.

Ellie Glaiyser of the Met Office, said the chillier weather was because of “an area of low pressure out towards the east of the UK, bringing with it some north-westerly winds and some colder conditions”.

“It’s a bit of a chillier start this morning, but quite a blustery start with plenty of showers around,” she said. “Higher pressure does remain close by, out towards the west of the UK, and there are some hints that we’ll see this moving closer towards us as we head through to the end of the week.”