Ordinary Gweilo

Yesterday London was hit by a tornado! The Sun has photographs of what it did to houses in a suburban street.  Scary stuff. 

The Guardian’s picture is rubbish, but their story may be more informative:

Wild weather: floods, gales and the terrifying sight of a tornado in London

Just before 11am in a fashionable part of north London, Caroline Phillips, a freelance writer, thought the apocalypse had come. Sitting at the front window of her home writing about the benefits of complementary therapy, she looked up to see the sky turn black. A grey tornado, taller than a house, spewing debris and roaring like a jet, was heading straight for her. 

"I dived under my desk and started screaming hysterically," she said. "I had my arms over my head. I heard the windows shatter all over the house." Roofs were ripped off cars, dustbins took to the air, and the facades of houses crumbled to expose the insides of children’s bedrooms, as an 1,800ft tornado, gusting to 110mph, tore through the area. 

The tornado came amid wild weather across much of Britain yesterday. More than 60 flights out of Heathrow airport were cancelled, trains were delayed in the south of England after flooding between Eastleigh and Fareham in Hampshire, P&O ferry services between Dover and Calais were cancelled, and huge seas raged off the Welsh coast in force 11 storms.

Makes me glad to be in Hong Kong.