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Suspected tornado tore through village as storm hit UK

Charlotte Coles,South of Englandand
Jamie Morris,South of England
Sarah Horton A tree on a residential street is destroyed. Half of it is on the ground in front of a driveway and behind a green bin.Sarah Horton
A suspected tornado hit Portchester in Hampshire on Thursday night

A suspected tornado ripped through part of a Hampshire village, leaving "devastation" in its wake, a resident has said.

The weather phenomenon left a line of damage about one mile long (1.6km) and about 100m (328ft) wide in the village of Portchester on Thursday night.

Sarah Horton, from the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO), said it was linked to Storm Austen bringing in heavy showers and changing winds.

Kevin Saunders, who lives in the affected area, said: "Our neighbours' walls are down, trees have gone, bushes have gone, metal fencing's gone, so it's just complete devastation."

Saunders said he and his wife were in bed when they heard "a massive rush of wind".

"It felt like the roof was going to lift off of the house," he said.

"Straight after that, we heard a massive bang, which was one of our neighbour's walls falling over."

Kevin Saunders Kevin and Sara are stood in a garden smiling into the camera. Kevin is holding a drink. It is a sunny day.Kevin Saunders
Kevin Saunders and his wife, Sara, live in the affected area

He said it was "very intense but very, very short", adding that most of their metal fences were blown over and the roof of their hot tub was "completely gone".

"It just seemed to be localised by about four houses and it seemed to last about 35 to 40 seconds," Saunders said. "It's devastation everywhere."

Sarah Horton A brick wall half knocked down.Sarah Horton
Walls were damaged as the suspected tornado tore through

Horton said she could see a lot of trees had been damaged along a "very narrow path" when she arrived at the scene.

"Some of the trees had lost their branches and these branches had been thrown off to one side," she said.

"With tornadoes, you usually get a very characteristic long line of damage where you can see that debris has been thrown to particular locations."

The tornado expert said it was linked to Storm Austen, which hit the UK on Thursday evening, bringing in a line of heavy showers.

She said these, combined with the wind changing speed or direction, made the showers start to rotate, resulting in the tornado.

A map of Portchester with tiny red dots in various places. Someone is pointing to the bottom of the screen.
The red dots show the path of destruction

It is not the first time Portchester has been hit by a tornado.

In 2002, more than 100 properties were damaged when a "mini tornado" tore through the village.

Horton said they were relatively common at this time of year around the south coast.

"In fact, for the last few years, there's been at least one tornado every year between Hampshire and Sussex," she said.