RMI researcher Maarten Reyniers deduces from radar images that a tornado may have passed through a forest in the province of Luxembourg last Thursday. He went on site on Tuesday and made the above images of about five hundred broken trees.
Reyniers said on Twitter that there are no images of the tornado itself. But the damage in the forest does point in that direction: the natural damage is considerable and it is not just about young trees, there were also old, strong trees.
A tornado in our country is not that exceptional, says RMI weatherman David Dehenauw. “We don’t know exactly how often a tornado occurs in our area, but it must be several per year.”
According to Dehenauw, a tornado, also known as a tornado, is indeed a possible explanation for the damage to the forest. Last Thursday, the RMI warned of strong winds and thunderstorms. Code orange had been declared for the province of Luxembourg, among others. ‘I had hourly contact with the Walloon crisis cell that day,’ says Dehenauw. ‘We saw live on the radar how the gusts entered Belgium. At the time itself, you cannot distinguish from a distance between a downwind – a wind that falls straight down – and a tornado. You only see that difference if you are on site, or if someone films the wind. We don’t have one, but the damage to the forest does indicate a tornado.’
Unnoticed
A tornado needs two main ingredients, explains Dehenauw: a heavy shower and wind shear. ‘Wind shear is a wind that changes in height and direction, causing a rotational movement of the air.’
Most tornadoes in our country will go unnoticed. “If a tornado sweeps across a field at night, no one will see it. In our country the tornadoes also travel shorter distances than in the US, where a tornado sometimes travels a distance of 50 kilometers. In October last year there was a tornado that entered the province of Hainaut from northern France. In total, the tornado must have traveled several tens of kilometers in France.’
Two years ago Beauraing was hit by a tornado in the province of Namur. Dozens of homes were severely damaged during the passage. There were also 17 injured.
2023-07-02 14:47:00
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