Remembering when London, England was hit with a rare "T4" tornado

Randi MannDigital Reporter
Published on Dec. 7, 2020, 11:03 AM
Updated on Dec. 7, 2022, 4:37 AM

It had been 50 years since London was hit by a tornado of this magnitude.

This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by Chris Mei from The Weather Network, featuring stories about people, communities and events and how weather impacted them.

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Seeing a tornado in London, England is not unusual. The tornado that ripped through the north-west of the city on December 7, 2017, was not your average cyclone.

It all started on the Thursday morning. There was an Atlantic low-pressure system that was creating unstable conditions for most of the UK.

Thunderstorms made their way across England, starting in Cornwall and moving east-northeastward.

Then a drop of humidity in Salisbury and an increase of atmospheric pressure created an acceleration. That added energy mixed with the change in wind direction created a touchdown of the T4 tornado (T4 is on the TORRO scale which equals to F2 on the Fujita scale).

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The tornado touched down in Kensal Rise, London, at 11 am.

The tornado didn't even last a minute, but it swept through several streets and injured 6 people. More than 100 properties were damaged.

The last tornado which caused significant damage in London was in 1954. It injured six people and ripped off the roof of the Gunnersbury London Underground station.

To hear more about the meteorology behind this tornado, listen to today's episode of "Today In Weather History".

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