A tornado has blitzed an area of north London just before lunchtime this morning. About 100 houses on ten streets in the Kensal Rise area have been damaged, some severely. A lot of roofs have been damaged, some have been completely ripped off and tiles and slates are all over the roads. The houses in these streets are all terraced and some of the end ones have had walls collapse. No one was killed but some people have been injured by falling masonry.
The tornado centred on roads around Chamberlayne Road in Kensal Rise, about 2 miles northwest of Hyde Park. I’m about 6 or 7 miles north of there and around the time it happened this morning the sky’s here got really dark and for about 15 minutes heavy rain came sleating in at about 45 degrees. Strangely after the rain stopped the clouds soon passed and there were clear blue sky’s. At the moment they’re still fairly clear but its quite windy so you don’t know what’s going to blow in.
The police have loads of streets in the effected area cordoned off and have evacuated a lot of residents. Many people would have been at work and will have a nasty little surprise waiting for them when they come home in the dark in an hour or two. I can imagine quite a bit of traffic chaos in the Kilburn, Kensal Rise and Harrow Road parts of town as the rush hour approachs.
This is definitely not a usual weather event for London.
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