Christmas tornado rips through Surrey damaging homes and cars

The south of England has been battered by heavy downpours over the weekend.

A ‘terrifying’ tornado has ripped through Surrey causing ‘serious damage’ to homes and cars.

Fire crews have been called to the area after high speed winds tore down trees and fences.

The south of England has been battered by heavy downpours over the weekend, with images showing roads submerged in water.

101 flood warnings are in place across the country, while the Met Office has received reports of a tornado in the towns of Chertsey and Ottershaw in Surrey.

More than 20 homes suffered damaged roofs and 10 cars were struck by falling tiles on one estate.

Twenty-six firefighters and four fire engines were sent to the scene to help residents.

Local councils are working with police to make the affected buildings safe.

A statement from Surrey fire and rescue said: ‘Residents stated that it was terrifying and came through very quickly

‘In total 26 houses, 13 cars and four garages were damaged.

One local, Paula Webb, told the Mirror that the windy onslaught was ‘like a plane taking off’.

She said: ‘All I can remember is it was really heavy rain, I looked outside and it was so dark, it sounded almost like it was a plane taking off, you could see the trees were literally bent over.

‘It was over in seconds, I could just see tiles off roofs and all the fencing down.’

Neighbour Jo Mason added: ‘It’s dented the bonnet of my new car, so not happy. I have got loads of dents on the bonnet. We were walking the dogs, when we came back the neighbours said ‘we’ve had a tornado’.

The Met Office has tweeted radar images showing how the tornado in Chertsey formed.

There have been reports of a tornado in Chertsey, Surrey this morning. The radar image on the left shows the heavy shower that would have caused it. The Doppler image on the right shows relative motion of rain droplets; the circled area highlights the rapid circulation pic.twitter.com/waYvXrrB1Q

— Met Office (@metoffice) December 21, 2019

Heavy rain combined with strong winds caused the unusual weather event.

Before the tornado, wet conditions had already caused major disruption for people hoping for a Christmas getaway.

Two works worth of rain is expected to fall over the weekend.

The River Darent in Eynsford, Kent has burst its banks overnight due to the continued heavy rain and the village of Yalding has been submerged.

Southern rail have said today that spells of heavy rain or showers may cause flooding on the railway leading to some potential disruption.