The word “tornado” has a foreign ring to it – though as the Oxford English Dictionary explains, it is probably a corruption of the Spanish word for thunder, “tronada”. If we associate it with a particular place, it is the vast, open plains of North America as seen in the classic children’s film The Wizard of Oz, which was set in Kansas.

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When we discover that on a single day in November 1981 no fewer than 102 tornadoes were recorded in the UK, we might be rather surprised.

These tornadoes appeared across an area running from north Wales, through the English Midlands, to East Anglia, with a few outliers to the north, during a brief but eventful five-and-a-half-hour spell on 23 November.

The reason was the appearance of a vigorous cold front, which crossed rapidly over the country. This led to updraughts of warm air hitting downdraughts of cooler air, which causes a spinning action, and leads to the formation of tornadoes.

The good news was that these were not the terrifying twisters that cause such destruction in north America, but a series of small ones, causing little major damage. But to keen tornado chasers this was a real treat: previously the most recorded for an entire year in the UK was just 80 – a record smashed in a single day.