It looks like we narrowly escaped a (mini) tornado this week!
The local "Storm Team" (has to be said in a loud, dramatic, American accent) predicted that we would have stormy weather, and it was pretty rainy and windy when we went to bed. We woke up to a loud thump in the middle of the night, but with the power out it was difficult to see anything in the darkness outside, so we went back to sleep.
On waking the next morning, the source of the "thump" became apparent - several rather large boughs had detached themselves from the tree under which both our cars were parked, and bounced off the bonnets, leaving several small (and large) dents... Hmmm, not good.
national-weather-service-tornado-touched-down-in-lancaster-county/
It was only as the day went on and we were out and about that the extent of the damage nearby became clearer. Our main road into Lancaster was closed - because a rather large hole had been ripped into the side of a nearby warehouse, and insulation and twisted metal sidings were now strewn across the the dual carriageway and main road, and wrapped around the trees and bushes. A nearby farmhouse, with a distinctive tree-lined avenue leading to it, was no longer surrounded by trees but by piles of ragged trunks and snapped branches.
overnight-rain-caused-damage-in-lancaster-county/
The woods a short walk from our house on the edge of our estate, now had a noticeable path of woodland wreckage through them. And a cornfield at the bottom of the hill had a very evident path of snapped corn stalks running through it.
The local news that evening confirmed it - due to the "twisting" evident in some of the tree trunk wreckage, it had definitely been a tornado. Luckily, no one had been hurt, just some nasty property damage and wreckage to clear up. They rated it just an EF1 - "moderate damage".
tornado-damage-not-enough-to-be-a-disaster
And to think we nearly slept through it all!
