Site Investigation 15.11.09

[Paul Sherman]

Conducted a Site Investigation on the Benfleet Tornado which occured at 915am on Saturday 14th November 2009, this Tornadic Storm also is now to have dropped a further Tornado to it's North East near South Woodham Ferriers which also needs investigating.

The Tornado path is about 1/2 Mile long and at it's widest the Tornado would have been about 50yds, I would rate this Tornado about T1-T2 On the Torro Scale although they will assess the damage and give it the rating

The damage starts near the Vicarage on Rushbottom Lane to some trees and is only light damage, as the Tornado crossed Overton Park the 1st damage to Fence Panels was visible, the Tornado strengthened as it crossed Arundel Road, The Lawns and The Fairway where the damage is the most extensive with a complete roof ripped off, after then crossing Seamore Avenue & Eversley Road and damaging chimneys the tornado once again strengthened as it hit Fairview Crescent and finally dissipated somewhere further along Moreland Avenue, the track of this Tornado was continuosly to the NE Along its entire path.

- Seamore Avenue With Brick Wall Demolished

- Junction of The Lawns and Arundel Road

- Further West along Arundel Road

- No 1 Fairway

- No 1 Fairway

- Extensive Roof Damage

- Seamore Avenue

- Fairview Crescent

- Fairview Crescent

- Damage to Greenhouse

- Wall Damage

- Moreland Avenue

- Damage Path and Track

Regards

Paul S

[Coast]

Quite a few reports coming in from yesterday, was it you who put the Benfleet one on the ESSL database Paul?

www.essl.org/ESWD

[NL]

Thanks for the update on the small tornado Paul, certainly could have been life threatening if you were caught out in it. Did any of the local residents capture any footage as it passed through?

Just looked at the Norwich evening News 24 site and the dreaded 'mini' word is used yet again..!!!

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/News/story.aspx?brand%20=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=enonline&tCategor%20y=news&itemid=NOED13%20Nov%202009%2015%3A46%3A59%3A157

[Paul Sherman]

I did not submit that report to the ESSL Robin

Paul I have spoken with many of the residents that were affected including John Sullivan from No 1 Fairway who had the most extensive damage to cars and roof/property and all are sending me their accounts later today which I will upload when I receive them, the track of the Tornado is so clear from the houses and aerials unaffected either side and the damage to property in the track.

Paul S

[dave48]

Interesting report Paul, have seen the pictures of the over shooting tops on UKWW too, some great data for this storm and good that no one was hurt too. Certainly an active year for your part of the world.

[dogs32]

nice report Paul...Thanks for sharing the details of what happened..

Only a fews months more to see some more

It amazes me how much storm activity happens in the EAST

[shuggee]

Very interesting Paul. Suburbia beware!

[John Hanrahan]

Great stuff Paul. Thanks

[Paul Sherman]

From corrospondance with the Torro Guys this is being rated a Strong T2 & Low end T3 From the damage pics which would put this at EF1 On the US Version.

Paul S

[chionomaniac]

Good report and pics, Paul.

Have you thought of offering a discounted UK storm chase tour around your neck of the woods in Essex, Paul? It seems that the storms are not content with you flying to America to see them and now the tornados are coming to see you!

c

[Hal1]

Absolutely amazing pics, well done. I hope nobody was injured though. House can be rebuilt etc.

[malc]

I was driving London bound on the A13 on Saturday morning around this time (benfleet area).

Sky was like night with lighting but no thunder heard.

We drove through a hailstorm at this time and I have to say the hail was the biggest I have ever seen. There was so much force that I thought the windscreen was going to smash. All traffic stopped - it was actuall quite scary.

Only lasted a couple of mins, but very intense.

[Nick F]

Thanks for the thorough report and pics Paul.

Here are the radar images for around the time the tornado dropped in Benfleet, Essex (09:10 - 09:15 14/11/09). Note the tornado would most likely have been on the Sern side of the storm, looking at the lighter rain spread NE on the N side of the storms shows that storm cloud tops were blown forward by the strong winds aloft.

At the time of the storm, a trough was moving NE locally, surface winds locally would likely have 'backed' from SWerly to Serly just ahead of this trough, backing of winds is well known to increase low-level shear - and with help of strong upper winds from the SW allowing any strong updraft into a storm in the area to rotate and then tighten into a tornado.

Winds were beginning to back generally on the larger scale over Sern England ahead of synoptic scale trough moving in from the west as seen on the wind prog at 09z (from 06z GFS yesterday):

... this creating strong low-level shear generally as shown by the shear charts, but the small scale trough moving NE across SE England around breakfast time may have allowed winds to suddenly back on its approach locally - perhaps leading to the tornadoes. The trough seen off the coast of E Anglia by 12z Saturday moving NE, the main trough over Wales:

There were reports of large hail from the same storm further NE, so this indicated that the storm was long-tracked (i.e. a low topped supercell) and had a persistently strong updraft/mesocyclone which helped large hail to develop.

[A.J]

Yep, thanks for the pics and update. I agree aswell that from the damage, it does look like a T1-T2 tornado, so a weak tornado.

Sorry mate, but your post made me chuckle, in a mickey taking way....you sound like an Norwich Union insurance adjuster!....to paraphrase "T1-T2 tornado, so a weak tornado...not much of a damages payout then, infact, did you check the small print??""...lol

[Harry]

That was the storm that woke me up around 8:45 - v loud clap of thunder through an open window, followed by further flashes and bangs before moving off into Essex. There was some VERY strong winds with it, horizontal torrential rain too...bizarre thinking that just 15 mins or so later it would drop a tornado.

Pleased nobody was hurt and that the damage wasn't more extensive.

[Guest North Sea Snow Convection]

Thanks for the thorough report and pics Paul.

As one of very many non expert storm peeps of the forum - that is a really very good analysis and not too hard to understand

[Mike Storm]

I am a private pilot, and whilst this cell blew over my house with thunder lightning and very heavy rain/ winds I decided to have a listen to the aircraft going into city airport on my transciever , they fly a 270 degree track inbound, joining the glide as far out as just where the tornado touched down, as runway 27 was in use. I was listening to there radio calls, and i remember one BA pilot say ' we can not establish on the localiser because there is a massive cell directly in front of us, and subsquently they took avoiding action, afterwards there were no inbound arrivals for about 20 minutes! :eek:

[johnholmes]

as you say Tamara for those of us not fully versed on this aspect a good insight into what happened and why-tks Paul and Nick and to the others who helped with their contributions.

[Nick B]

I am a private pilot, and whilst this cell blew over my house with thunder lightning and very heavy rain/ winds I decided to have a listen to the aircraft going into city airport on my transciever , they fly a 270 degree track inbound, joining the glide as far out as just where the tornado touched down, as runway 27 was in use. I was listening to there radio calls, and i remember one BA pilot say ' we can not establish on the localiser because there is a massive cell directly in front of us, and subsquently they took avoiding action, afterwards there were no inbound arrivals for about 20 minutes! :eek:

I was flying into Heathrow but later, in the afternoon. The pilot was quite informative and said there was a delay with many of the aircraft stacking up. He said that on final approach , very close to touchdown, quite a few aircraft beforehand had had to perform a go-around and that if we had to do the same it would be a normal procedure in those conditions, since they were not going to attempt to put the plane down unless it was safe to do so. It was nice and bumpy on approach, for sure, with plenty of wing waggling (even in an Airbus A340-600!), though in the event we were able to land first time.

[Charltonkerry]

I was surprised to read your report of a tornado, we where out shopping in Dartford at that time and boy was it dark, with extermly heavy rain and high winds, never occured to me that just accross the Thames that this was taking place.

[TornadoJo]

And seeing this would have been the best birthday present ever - had I been awake!!(Changing to up as thats more accurate!)

[MAF]

And seeing this would have been the best birthday present ever - had I been awake!!

:blink: :lol:

Paul and Nick, thanks for the reports and pictures. great to read the posts about something "home grown" for a change

[Paul Sherman]

PMSL @ Jo

To be fair to you only 1% of Tornadoes happen before 12 Noon so this is a very rare beast and you were probably nursing a hangover from Friday Night, I did wonder where you were seeing as the strongest precip and hail from the Supercell went straight over your house as it clobbered Pitsea, Bas Vegas and Wickford, i kept the wifes car out of harms way in the dry :blink:

Just an update on the path of this Tornado it now seems the length is over 1 Mile as there has been more damage found further North East from where the damage ended in Moreland Road. At the top of Moreland Road is another road that runs West to East and a few houses in this road and the Copse behind this have extensive damage, 1 house is structually unsafe as the wall is leaning over a neighbours garden.

Paul S

[TornadoJo]

Thanks for the support - sadly I don't get hangovers (is that sad?) so I can't use that excuse. I had checked the boards the day before and thought I'd be okay to sleep in - I didn't expect any action that early. I was awake at 9.15 and was texting my friend about my party, dresses, hair and other girly things when the storm was going on outside so would it be wrong to use that fact I was being girly as an excuse??

So close yet so far. Thanks for all the info.

[Tom Lynch]

Conducted a Site Investigation on the Benfleet Tornado which occured at 915am on Saturday 14th November 2009, this Tornadic Storm also is now to have dropped a further Tornado to it's North East near South Woodham Ferriers which also needs investigating.

The Tornado path is about 1/2 Mile long and at it's widest the Tornado would have been about 50yds, I would rate this Tornado about T1-T2 On the Torro Scale although they will assess the damage and give it the rating

The damage starts near the Vicarage on Rushbottom Lane to some trees and is only light damage, as the Tornado crossed Overton Park the 1st damage to Fence Panels was visible, the Tornado strengthened as it crossed Arundel Road, The Lawns and The Fairway where the damage is the most extensive with a complete roof ripped off, after then crossing Seamore Avenue & Eversley Road and damaging chimneys the tornado once again strengthened as it hit Fairview Crescent and finally dissipated somewhere further along Moreland Avenue, the track of this Tornado was continuosly to the NE Along its entire path.

- Seamore Avenue With Brick Wall Demolished

- Junction of The Lawns and Arundel Road

- Further West along Arundel Road

- No 1 Fairway

- No 1 Fairway

- Extensive Roof Damage

- Seamore Avenue

- Fairview Crescent

- Fairview Crescent

- Damage to Greenhouse

- Wall Damage

- Moreland Avenue

- Damage Path and Track

Regards

Paul S

Thanks Paul

I can see what I am missing.

Tom