12-05-21, 18:59
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Tornado Rips Through UK Town Leaving Trail of Destruction
Tornado Rips Through Town Smashing Glass and Sending Trees and Fences Flying
The storm appeared suddenly and with a deafening noise and ripped through Cullompton, Devon - leaving a trail of shattered car windows and trees scattered in its wake
Daily Mirror UK / BBC,12 MAY 2021.
An interesting thunderstorm approached Exeter (dumping a fair tonne of rain and also some hail reported in Newton Abbott), but then departed for Cullompton showing off some rapid and complex cloud movements (most of this video was shot looking north-northeast).
Later confirmed by doppler radar, it was almost certainly rotating. Riding a well-forced convective trough, this likely formed right where the surface low was, with winds converging into the centre, giving rise to high shear in the cloud base and resulted in a tightly-wrapping
mesocyclone with apparent scud funnel clouds. This travelled upcountry through Devon and Somerset with numerous confirmed reports and even some likely tornado damage in Cullompton. Also evident is the classic RFD (Rear Flank Downdraught) and striations in the cumulonimbus structure.
Earlier this evening, The Met Office confirmed tornados have been forming today.
According to the Met Office a rotating storm cloud is classified as a tornado if its vortex touches the ground.
Its website says: "A funnel cloud usually develops as the vortex forms due to the reduced pressure in the vortex. Strong inflowing winds intensify, and the spin rate increases as the vortex stretches vertically.
"If it continues stretching and intensifying for long enough the vortex touches the ground, at which point it becomes classified as a tornado.
"The tornado then moves across the surface causing severe damage or destruction to objects in its path."
"A tornado typically has the form of a twisting funnel-shaped cloud between the cloud base and the ground.
"Sometimes the vortex can appear as a slender rope-like form, particularly when the tornado is weakening; sometimes a tornado can be almost invisible, observable by the debris thrown up from the surface.
"Tornadoes typically spin anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (cyclonically)."
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