MINOR TORNADO IN ENGLAND

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26119, 23 May 1950, Page 5

MINOR TORNADO IN ENGLAND

Two Villages Suffer Heavy Damage HOUSES UNROOFED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, May 22. Britain's first tornado for 22 years struck four of the Home Counties last night. Officially described as a “minor tornado.” it roared through the counties of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Huntingdonshire. It hit the villages of Linslade and Leighton Buzzard with its full fury. In Linslade, 300 houses were damaged. Many families had their bedding and iurniture soaked by torrential rain. Whole streets of houses were stripped of their slates, and their windows were shattered. Hardlj’ a building of any kind over an area of a square mile came through the tornado unscratched. Motor-cars parked on hilly streets were lifted bodily and dashed against telegraph poles. Trees were uprooted, sucked 1000 feet into the air. and then dropped half a mile away. Iron roofing, ripped off a jute sack factory, slashed through the trunks of elm trees nearby. Fruit trees and greenhouses over an area of manv miles in the path of the tornado were laid flat. The damage is estimated at thousands of pounds. During the storm, the sky was so overcast that it was almost impossible to see. Yesterday was a day of freak weather throughout Southern England. Two men were killed by lightning ir a motor-cycle rally at Houghton Conquest. Bedfordshire. Four London rolfers and their caddies were struck by lightning and injured, when they were approaching the thirteenth green. All were thrown to the ground, and one man had his clothing torn to shreds. The Great Ouse river burst its banks, causing some flooding in the Bedfordshire districts of Kempston and Clapham.