Tornadoes not just in Kansas anymore

TREES were toppled, garden furniture tossed into fields and debris — including corrugated iron and plastic sheeting — sucked 200m into the air as two tornadoes battered a rural community in West Cork yesterday.

The massive tornadoes struck at lunchtime at Rossmore, near Clonakilty, Co Cork.

Eyewitness Padraig Whooley, who caught the twisters on video, said the first tornado was perfectly formed.

“It had a perfect spout and funnel and could have been up to 200m high. It didn’t appear to do any damage, but then we saw a second one. There was rain, lightning and then this incredible wind.”

Mr Whooley, who is co-ordinator of the Irish Whale & Dolphin Group, said he’d often encountered strong winds out at sea, but nothing like the whirlwind that struck Rossmore yesterday.

“It was an incredibly powerful wind, even though it was short-lived. Garden furniture in a neighbour’s place was just picked up and blown into a farmer’s field.

“I saw plastic sheeting suspended up in the air, maybe up to 200m high.

“They may not have been in the top scale of Kansas tornadoes, but by Irish standards they were quite spectacular,” he added.

Dr John Tyrrell, a scientist based at University College Cork who specialises in tornado research, said last night that weather patterns in West Cork might have created even more twisters yesterday, but it could have been hard to see them with the heavy rain and thick cloud cover.

“Speeds inside tornadoes can reach up to 160mph. But even ones with speeds of 70mph to 80mph can be dangerous. It’s not so much the wind that’s dangerous, but the debris which is flung out. Imagine shards of glass flying out of a spinning wheel. Every tornado can be lethal,” Dr Tyrrell.

Fortunately, nobody was injured yesterday.

The last tornado he investigated in Cork hit the Galtee Mountains, near Mitchelstown, last month. Last year another struck Ballincollig.

“There is no evidence that they are becoming more common, it’s just that people are reporting them more,” said Dr Tyrrell.

lAnybody witnessing such phenomena is asked to contact Dr Tyrrell at University College Cork at 021-4902326. In force: Garda Reserve figures

Overall reserve:

* 117 fully trained or attested

* 97 still in training

Divisions with reserves:

* Dublin 81

* Cork 10

* Galway 11

* Limerick 5

* Sligo 4

* Clare 3

* Waterford 2

* Kerry 1.