Seaford homes damaged in strong winds reported as ‘mini tornado’

Homes in Seaford, East Sussex, have been damaged by strong winds overnight, which residents described as “a mini tornado”.

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service was called to Victor Close at 06:28 GMT to reports that a garage roof and door had been blown away.

Fire crews worked to make several surrounding properties safe.

The Met Office said it could not confirm if there had been a tornado in the area.

Terry Purcell, from Sussex Traffic Watch, said: “Garage roofs have been removed by the wind overnight, apparently one of them landed on a conservatory at the rear of the property, and there’s a few roof tiles missing from other properties.”

He told BBC Radio Sussex: “Another chap said there’s a trampoline round the corner on Beacon Drive.”

A spokesperson for the fire service said: “Crews are currently in attendance working to make several properties in the area safe which have been impacted by the incident.”

The Met Office said tornadoes could happen in the UK but they were typically small and short lived, with 30 to 35 reports a year on average.

“They can cause some, often minor, structural damage in built-up areas,” a spokesperson said.

“Due to their small, short-lived nature we do not warn for tornadoes in the UK as they do in countries like the USA.”

BBC East senior weather presenter Gillian Brown explained after a tornado in Luton last year that they usually formed during thunderstorms when warm air rises through colder air.

“With the right wind conditions, the air starts to spin, and if the swirling air touches down on the ground, that forms a tornado,” she said.

The Met Office said it needed clear photographic evidence of a rotating cloud making contact with the ground to verify a tornado.