South Dublin residents avoided a tornado last month

People living in a swathe of south Dublin may have had a lucky escape after Met Éireann confirmed a tornado tore through an area of at least a mile last month.

So strong was the tornado that John Tyrrell, a tornado expert studying the impact of the event that took place at 6am on Oct 17 last, said people’s lives could have been at risk if it occurred at a different time of the day.

Large trees were uprooted and metal sheets torn off garden roofs as the tornado travelled in a northerly direction from Crumlin past Inchicore, Kilmainham and near the South Circular Rd before dissipating in a section of the Phoenix Park.