Where tornadoes are most common in the uk as met office issues alert

THE MET OFFICE HAS SAID A 'BRIEF TORNADO' COULD HIT PARTS OF ENGLAND – BUT HOW RARE ARE TWISTERS IN THE UK? 17:39, 21 May 2025 The Met Office has said that a tornado could hit the

UK as heavy downpours bring a dramatic end to the nation's prolonged dry spell. Forecasters warned on Wednesday (May 21) of potential thunder, lightning, hail – and even a tornado –

after the driest start to spring in nearly six decades. The Environment Agency (EA) previously warned of a 'medium' risk of drought this summer without sustained rainfall, with

millions of households told they may face restrictions on water use in the coming months. As of Friday (May 16), just 80.6mm of rain had been recorded across the UK this spring – nearly 20mm

less than the record low for the full season of 100.7mm set in 1852. The prolonged dry spell seen in the UK was thanks to the jet stream, a fast-flowing core of strong winds high in the

atmosphere, the Met Office says. The jet stream has taken a more meandering path this spring, often bypassing the UK, resulting in high pressure – which typically brings settled, dry weather

– staying in place for longer periods of time. However, the latest forecasts reveal that wet weather is making a comeback – and the UK weather agency says a brief tornado is 'not out

of the question'. The Met Office said on X, formerly Twitter: "With heavy showers in the south today there's a risk of thunder and lightning, and possibly some short-lived

funnel clouds or even a brief tornado." Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said: "Bit of a north-south split in our weather through today – northern parts having a lot of fine,

sunny weather, meanwhile in the south we’ve seen some wet weather push its way in… and there will be further showery bursts to come as we go through the rest of today." There is also a

risk of thunder, lightning and hail in the UK’s southern regions. He added: "It’s not out of the question that we could see a funnel cloud, maybe even a brief tornado across parts of

the South East." A funnel cloud is a cone-shaped cloud which comes from the base of a cloud towards the ground, often looking like thin dangling bits of rope, the Met Office says. While

a tornado alert may seem like a rare occurrence in the UK, there are around 30 to 50 reported each year, with the UK having one of the highest number of tornadoes per land area in the

world, the Met Office says. However, they aren't typically like the powerful twisters seen in places like 'tornado alley' in the US, which includes states like Texas,

Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska. Instead, most tornadoes in the UK are 'small and short-lived', the Met Office says, with an estimated wind speed of up to 72 miles per hour, which fall

in the lowest two strength categories on the TORRO scale. WHERE DO TORNADOES OCCUR IN THE UK? Burkill said in a Met Office video: "Tornadoes can pop up anywhere in the four nations, but

most reports are from England, which actually has one of the highest tornado rates in all the world. "That's pretty remarkable when you consider how small England is, even if the

tornadoes are typically small and short-lived." Research conducted at the University of Manchester looked into tornado reports from 1980 to 2012 and found that England averages at

around 2.2 tornadoes a year for every 10,000 square kilometres. Surprisingly, that is higher than the US, which has about 1.3 tornadoes per year. The likelihood of tornadoes is highest in

central and southern England, stretching into parts of south Wales. The research even found that England has three of its own 'tornado alleys'. Burkill added: "One hotspot is

an area south of the line between Reading and London, with a maximum near Guildford. "Another stretches from north of Bristol, through Birmingham, up to Manchester. "The last

covers large parts of Essex and Suffolk. Article continues below "When it comes to Scotland and Northern Ireland, even over the more populated areas, tornado sightings are pretty

rare." In general, tornadoes in the UK form from isolated thunderstorms, which are most frequent during the summer months. However, they're more likely to pop along storm lines

along active cold fronts, like the tornado that ripped through a village in Newquay, Cornwall during Storm Eowyn in January of this year.