A tornado wreaked havoc in a small part of the Netherlands this morning. The damage was especially great in the region of Apeldoorn. The tornado was so strong that a caravan was blown into the air on the A50 motorway. “We experience this once or twice a year in the Netherlands,” it says.
Not all damage has been measured yet, but it is clear that the tornado has wreaked havoc just before noon. In Beekbergen, Lieren and Klarenbeek, among others, the firefighters had their hands full with uprooted trees, damaged roofs and blown down terraces.
Minitornado
The images circulating on Twitter speak of a “mini tornado”. But according to Jeroen Elferink, meteorologist at Weerplaza, “this is really about a tornado, or whirlwind if you want to use the Dutch name.”
According to the weather expert, such a tornado occurs about once or twice a year in the Netherlands. “It is not necessarily rare, but always special. The last time this happened was last year in July or August in Zeeland.”
No American tornado
This tornado is different from the American variety. This is because, according to Elferink, this is a “low-toppet supercell”, a severe thunderstorm with a low cloud base.
“This tornado often has a shorter lifespan and is caused by the thunderstorm rotating on its own axis. This creates the trunk that carries the storm downwards. It doesn’t happen very often in the Netherlands that the trunk reaches the ground. The tornado lasts relatively short, but can cause a lot of damage.”