THE TORNADO that devastated parts of Stalybridge is possibly the widest ever to hit this country, a report has found.
This time 12 months ago, homeowners were piecing together what had been smashed as winds of up to 160mph tore through Tameside, with Dukinfield also impacted.
Huge trees were toppled, rooves of homes blown off and many severely damaged, with several cars hit by falling slates and masonry following the freak event late on December 27.
Even now, scaffolding is seen around a number of properties as repairs are carried out while many stumps stand where mature fauna once towered over.
And a full investigation by the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) has spelled out just how big it was.
In its findings, it states: “It is possible that the tornado was up to 1km wide at its widest location, perhaps as a multi-vortex tornado.
“It is also possible that some damage was due to straight-line winds.
“If the damage were all tornadic, this would make this the widest tornado ever recorded in the UK.
“The widest tornado recorded (at the time of writing) being the Selsey, West Sussex, tornado on 7 January 1998 which was 900 metres wide.”
People in Tameside need no reminding of the chaos the tornado, which was part of Storm Gerrit, caused as it gathered to a strength of T 4/5 over a 6.7 kilometre, or about four and a quarter mile, track.
After hitting Dukinfield, it roared through Stalybridge town centre and essentially up Huddersfield Road, through Copley, Brushes, Millbrook and Carrbrook before dissipating into the countryside at Cowbury Dale.
Behind it, its destruction saw a roof of houses on Hough Hill Road peeled off like a tin can, properties in Millbrook hit by falling trees, several walls blown down and hundreds of slates blown off, a number of which hit cars.
Additional damage recorded in TORRO’s report includes roof slates in Carrbrook being thrown up to 160 metres away.
A garage roof close to Mayfair Close in Dukinfield was thrown 45 metres, multiple rooves suffering loss of more than 20 tiles and at least six cars suffering damage from debris impact.
In Stalybridge, one of the rooves of a Hough Hill Road property was thrown 20 metres and it also suffered collapse of most of a gable wall.
People described a car and kitchen window as being damaged by a flying trampoline and a utility pole being thrown 10 metres.
In one area close to Carrbrook, almost all large trees were felled or severely damaged by the tornado.
And a small motorboat attached to a trailer was thrown and landed upside down. In Cowbury Dale, an area of woodland measuring 800 square metres was decimated.
TORRO’s report also tells how the tornado originated many miles away, over Ireland.
But the group also adds: “The intensity of the tornado is remarkable, given that it occurred in an environment characterized by a surface air temperature of 7–8°C and a surface dewpoint of 5–6°C, in the polar maritime air mass behind the cold front of Storm Gerrit.”