I was at my son’s school sports day today, armed with my big camera and long lens to record his athletic exploits. As we were waiting around, my husband spotted a funnel cloud forming over Warwick. It was fascinating to watch. Here’s the sequence of photos I took over the course of about 15 minutes, starting at around 2.10pm. (I’ve upped the contrast a bit but otherwise they’re straight off the camera.)
The funnel cloud first appears at around 14:10
A minute later the funnel cloud is growing bigger
After another 2 mins it starts to get fatter
After 5 minutes it starts contracting and looks like an insect stinger
A minute of so later the cloud elongated again
Four minutes later it had thinned again
My last shot of the funnel cloud about 16 minutes after I first spotted it
Shortly after this the tornado broke up and disappeared altogether.
UPDATE: Thu 21st July – You’ll find a couple of these pics published in today’s Daily Mirror and the Metro. Unfortunately, confusingly they’re credited to Carl Spencer so I think there must’ve been a mix up but I’ve confirmed I am getting paid for them.
I saw it too travelling home from work. very impressive. You should send a photo to the BBC Great British Weather program tonight.
mailto:greatbritishweather@bbc.co.uk?subject=Photos
Keri
Thanks Keri – I’ve syndicated the pics now so they might be in the national papers tomorrow :-)
Fantastic photos! The last one is a gem, it shows the funnel cloud was not too far from touching down at all really. We could see it from First Utility’s office at Tachbrook Park, but not this well. Thanks for these!
Thanks Martin :-)
Love the pics – fantastic – i am in warwick and surrounded by trees so didnt see a thing but i have a fascination of this kidna thing so your photos were fab to discover – thankyou xxx
I was young when this happened, Scared me to death