2005 Birmingham tornado

Tornado in the United Kingdom September 2019 September 2019 the 2005 Birmingham tornado in the United Kingdom Birmingham tornado Birmingham_tornado,_2005.jpeg The tornado seen over Moseley, taken from Stratford Road 28 July 2005 14:37 BST (UTC+01:00) 15:00 BST (UTC+01:00) 23 minutes 144-216 mph kph on IF3 T6 0 39 40000000 GBP (2005) Birmingham, England tornadoes of 2005 The 2005 Birmingham tornado was an IF3 tornado which occurred on the afternoon of 28 July 2005, causing significant damage to the southern and eastern suburbs of Birmingham, and becoming the costliest tornado ever recorded in Great Britain.2025-07-28 UK's costliest tornado in Birmingham 20 years on https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/ckg4ny97pn2o 2025-10-16 BBC Weather en-GB Several organisations have rated the tornado with varying degrees of intensity; most recently, the ESSL rated the tornado IF3 on the International Fujita scale. Background While England has more reported tornadoes relative to its land area than any other country, the vast majority are weak. According to the Met Office, around 30 tornadoes hit the UK every year, though most are small and dissipate without causing significant damage.Tornado https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/tornadoes 2023-07-17 Met Office en Several tornadoes have struck the city of Birmingham. An F3 tornado struck the city in 1931, killing one woman and severely damaging hundreds of houses.1931 Birmingham Struck By A Tornado! https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/41309/ live https://archive.today/20130118160223/http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=5692 18 January 2013 6 May 2025 British Pathé On 23 November 1981, during a record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak, three tornadoes touched down within the Birmingham city limits – in Erdington, Kings Heath, and Selly Oak – with three other tornadoes touching down within the boundaries of the wider West Midlands county.Re-examining the U.K.'s Greatest Tornado Outbreak: Forecasting the Limited Extent of Tornadoes along a Cold Front https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300368324 https://web.archive.org/web/20230114230317/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300368324_Re-examining_the_UK's_Greatest_Tornado_Outbreak_Forecasting_the_Limited_Extent_of_Tornadoes_along_a_Cold_Front 2023-01-14 2025-10-16 ResearchGate en Notable tornadoes also struck the city in 1946, 1968, and 1999.Meaden G. Terence Terence Meaden Chatfield Christopher R. June 2009 Tornadoes in Birmingham, England, 1931 and 1946 to 2005 http://www.ijmet.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/339.pdf International Journal of Meteorology 34 339 155–161 Meteorological synopsis On the morning of 28 July, a shallow depression was located southwest of Cornwall, with a slow-moving warm front extending across the Midlands and a cold front advancing from the southwest. Early cloud cover gave way to breaks in the afternoon, allowing surface heating to destabilize the atmosphere. This heating, combined with an elevated mixed layer of dry air advected from Spain, created conditions favorable for intense convection.Thursday 28 July 2005 (Birmingham Tornado) https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/research/library-and-archive/library/publications/historical-weather-factsheets/birminghamtornado28july2005.pdf 29 Mar 2025 Met Office The supercell responsible for the tornado developed along a triple point, where the synoptic cold front intersected an insolation-enhanced warm front, a boundary strengthened by solar heating. This intersection enhanced low-level convergence and vorticity, providing the necessary lift for thunderstorm development. The environment featured moderate instability (1000–1600 J/kg of CAPE) and extreme wind shear, particularly in the lowest 1–3 km of the atmosphere, where directional shear promoted rotating updrafts.Knightley Paul September 2006 Tornadogenesis across England on July 28, 2005 http://www.ijmet.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/311.pdf International Journal of Meteorology 31 311 243–250 The supercell thunderstorm that produced the Birmingham tornado developed at around 13:45 BST to the south of Birmingham, and moved north-northeastwards toward the city. Several other supercell thunderstorms developed across the Midlands later that afternoon, producing brief, weak tornadoes, including one which damaged a church roof in Moulton, Lincolnshire.2005-07-28 Tornado 'rips off a church roof' https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lincolnshire/4726237.stm 2025-07-22 en-GB4 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 no Tornado summary thumb|left|Damage caused by the tornado in Moseley At 2:29 PM BST, a funnel cloud was photographed from the Hopwood Park Service area on the M42 motorway, 8.5 miles south of Birmingham. TORRO concluded this to be a separate, T2 tornado. By around 2:37PM, the main tornado began in Howard Road, Kings Heath. Initially crossing Alcester Rd South, the tornado inflicted roof damage to several buildings, including a roof torn off and thrown across the road. A woman was taken to hospital after being struck by flying debris.Wainwright Martin 29 July 2005 Tornado wreaks havoc in suburbs of Birmingham https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/jul/29/weather.climatechange 22 July 2025 The Guardian Continuing northeastward into Wake Green and Moseley, the tornado began causing more significant damage to trees and homes. Several streets including Blenheim Road were completely blocked by fallen trees. Reaching Balsall Heath, the tornado attained peak IF3 intensity: several shops had their windows blown out and lost portions of their roofs. Several rows of terraced homes along Birchwood Road and Alder Road in Balsall Heath had their roofs torn off, and several sustained exterior wall damage to the upper floors. Cars were rolled several metres down driveways, and trees were flattened in Balsall Heath park. Continuing northwards across Stratford Road, Ladypool Primary School was extensively damaged and lost its Martin & Chamberlain tower. The adjacent St Agatha's Church also suffered some damage. Christ Church, on the corner of Dolobran Road and Grantham Road in Sparkbrook, was also damaged and has now been demolished.Songs of Raze 2005-10-10 After the tornado: 'market forces' force demolition of Sparkbrook Church https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/10/325323.html 2025-05-06 Indymedia UKConsistory Court Cases 2005 https://ecclawsoc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/recent_judgments_2005.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20061211204446/http://ecclawsoc.org.uk/documents/recent_judgments_2005.pdf 2006-12-11 2025-05-06 Ecclesiastical Law Society 11 Farm Park, Sparkhill suffered severe damage, shortly before the tornado approached Coventry Road where it significantly damaged a Wedding Hall and several homes; at this point, the tornado was weakening as it continued northwards past St Andrew's Stadium. A brick wall was blown down at Saltley Viaduct, and minor tree damage was noted along Heartlands Parkway at the intersection with Cuckoo Road. The tornado crossed the M6 Motorway just east of the Gravelly Hill interchange. TV Aerial damage was found in The Oval, Erdington, as well as minor roof damage. The final instance of damage came from Erdington Abbey, where trees suffered minor branch damage.Kirk Peter September 2006 A mammoth task: The site investigation after the 2005 Birmingham Tornado http://www.ijmet.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/311.pdf International Journal of Meteorology 31 311 255–260 Aftermath and rating Immediately following the tornado, more than 50 ambulance, and 25 fire crews were deployed to the scene, along with sniffer dogs, and West Midlands Fire Service declared a major incident. Over a dozen people were taken to hospital for treatment, 39 were injured, several severely.Hamilton Alan Bird Steve July 29, 2005 Tornado's ten-minute rampage https://www.thetimes.com/travel/advice/tornados-ten-minute-rampage-pf5z8xpcxwj March 30, 2025 The TimesWard David 30 July 2005 Freak wind leaves locals with a sense of sheer disbelief https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/jul/30/weather.climatechange 25 September 2025 The Guardian Then-Birmingham council leader, Paul Tillesley, remarked that it was a "miracle" that no fatalities occurred.Sturcke James July 29, 2005 Clear-up begins after Birmingham tornado https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/jul/29/weather.climatechange1 March 30, 2025 The Guardian Hundreds of residents were evacuated from significantly damaged areas, particularly Balsall Heath, while emergency services searched over 1000 properties. Overall, more than 500 buildings were damaged, including 115 businesses, Ladypool Primary School, churches, and hundreds of houses- several were subsequently marked for demolition. Birmingham City Council provided emergency accommodation for over 160 people following the tornado, and granted a £1 million recovery fund. The tornado is the costliest on record in the UK, having caused £40 million of damage, equivalent to £UK 40 2005 c million in UK.Kantamaneni Komali Phillips Mike Jenkins Rhian Oakley Judith Ibeabuchi Obinna 2015 Could the UK Economy Be Impacted by an Increase in Tornado Occurrence: A Consequence of Climate Change in the 21st Century https://pure.solent.ac.uk/en/publications/could-the-uk-economy-be-impacted-by-an-increase-in-tornado-occurr International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses 15 2 22–39 10.18848/1835-7156/CGP/v07i02/37230 1835-7156 subscription Three months later, on 12 October 2005, an IF2 tornado caused damage to roofs in Dovey Road, Moseley, less than a mile from the path of the 28 July tornado.2005-10-12 Second tornado strikes Birmingham https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/4336208.stm 2025-05-06 BBC News en-GB Rating In August 2006, Timothy P. Marshall and Stuart Robinson with the Haag Engineering Co, rated the tornado EF2 on a draft version of the-then unpublished Enhanced Fujita scale, marking one of the first tornadoes to receive an EF-scale rating.Marshall Timothy P. Timothy P. Marshall Robinson Stuart November 2006 Birmingham U.K. Tornado: 28 July 2005 https://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/115203.pdf 23rd Conference on Severe Local Storms American Meteorological Society 20 December 2024 In July 2015, the tornado was rated T5–6 on the TORRO scale by the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation based on the United Kingdom.July 2015 Birmingham Tornado 10 Year Anniversary https://www.torro.org.uk/pdf/Birmingham_Tornado_10_Year_Anniversary.pdf live https://web.archive.org/web/20160706052945/http://www.torro.org.uk/Birmingham%20Tornado%2010%20Year%20Anniversary.pdf 6 July 2016 6 May 2025 Tornado and Storm Research Organization The European Severe Storms Laboratory rated the tornado F2, on the Fujita scale and T4 on the TORRO scale. However, in December 2024, this rating was amended to IF3 on the new International Fujita scale.Staff of the European Severe Storms Laboratory European Severe Weather Database https://eswd.eu/ ESWD European Severe Storms Laboratory Interactive map and database 2024 2024-01-04 2022-09-20 https://web.archive.org/web/20220920172917/https://eswd.eu/ live See also List of tornadoes and tornado outbreaks List of European tornadoes and tornado outbreaks Climate of the United Kingdom 1981 United Kingdom tornado outbreak References External links BBC Birmingham Site BBC Birmingham - Pictures by the public Birmingham City Council tornado page The Balti Triangle Back in Business (photos) https://web.archive.org/web/20060725033258/http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/Media/Tornado%20Exhibition%20G5.pdf?MEDIA_ID=133502&FILENAME=Tornado%20Exhibition%20G5.pdf 25 July 2006 Forward - Birmingham City Council newspaper ITN News report on the Birmingham tornado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPtdu6zLh8E Category:History of Birmingham, West Midlands 2005-07-28 07-28 Birmingham Tornado, 2005 Category:Weather events in England Category:2000s in Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Disasters in the West Midlands (county) Birmingham Tornado 2005-07-28