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You are > Home > Twister hits Wexford
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Thursday, July 29, 2010
Twister hits Wexford
RESIDENTS OF Forth Mountain thought they were in Kansas for a while on Wednesday when a mini tornado formed in the sky.
The funnel cloud formed due to the hot weather last week making for a picture more like something out of the Southern States of the USA than Wexford.
The remarkable footage, from a video taken at Forth Mountain shows the rotating cone of wind forming near a home.
It was taken as freak weather hit the country, with lightning strikes, thunder and high winds that brought a department store window pane crashing onto a busy pedestrian area on King Street South.
There were further thunderstorms across the country.
The funnel cloud led to excitement and concern in Forth Mountain.
RTE meteorologist and Wexford man Gerald Fleming said funnel clouds occur when we get very aggressive shower clouds.
“We actually get them all the time. They happen in continental Europe very regularly. In certain weather they grow much taller in the atmosphere and lead to thunder storms and this phenomenon of tunnel clouds of tornados occurs.” Mr. Fleming, (who heads up RTE’s meteorological department), said he received many reports of funnel clouds over the last few years.
“People are taking pictures of them with their mobile phones and handheld video cameras. They mainly occur in a rural context. In terms of County Wexford they wouldn’t have caused much damage apart from disturbing a few haycocks. These clouds are driven by high temperatures in summer. The cloud builds up through the morning into the afternoon.”
Mr. Fleming said he expects the weather to settle this week but cannot predict how the rest of the summer will go.
“Knowing the limits of knowledge is wisdom in itself.”
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