Reported 'mini' Tornado In St. Albans

[saint]

http://www.hertsad.co.uk/content/herts/news/story.aspx?brand=HADOnline&category=News&tBrand=HertsCambsOnline&tCategory=newslatestHAD&itemid=WEED03%20Dec%202009%2011%3A04%3A47%3A490

As you can see it is reported that a possible 'mini' trornado has hit a St. Albans road, But as you can a see a forecaster from the Met Office supects it wasn't.

Just thought i would post it as it seems like some extreme weather.........

At the time it was reported it was very heavy rain.

[Coast]

A spokesman for the Meteorological Office said that it could have been a mini tornado but he thought it was more likely to have been a squall, a down draught of fast-moving cold air associated with convective activity.

In other words, no one clearly bothered to ask the Met O......

[coldfingers]

Looking at the photo all I could see was a large trampoline that had obviously been airborne for a very short time. Not very strong squalls required to do that! One down the next road from here ended up half over the neighbours fence and a couple of fence panels blown in. NOT caused by a tornado ( mini or otherwise) just the squally weather we had the other weekend.

I really can't see a proper Met Office spokesman using the term 'mini tornado' maybe the cleaning lady!

[londonsnow]

please, someone clear this up for me. as i understand it tornadoes vary in strength from T1 to T5. only it seems in the uk do we have the "mini tornado". what is this? when does a mini tornado become a maxi tornado' i'm not the only person who finds this terminology mildly irritating.