Man captures footage of ‘tornado’ at Creamfields festival
It wouldn’t be the great British Summer without a bit of rain, but what about a tornado?
Well, one man seems to have captured footage of the extreme weather phenomenon while at Creamfields.
Before you laugh off the festival-goer though, the MET Office has responded to the clip – calling the sudden storm ‘impressive’ on social media.
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For those who’ve yet to make it to the festival, Creamfields is an electro-dance music event that was named after the iconic Liverpool venue, Cream.
While the brick building might have gone, the club lives on through its many Ibiza sessions and festivals across the globe, one of which is held in Cheshire this weekend.
Unsurprisingly, the UK site was hit by a major deluge over the bank holiday with attendee Adam Baker also being caught up in the storm.
As the festival-goer took cover, he pointed his camera towards one of the festival's tents to capture the insane storm.
Through the intense rainfall, a tight spiral can be seen forming against the darkening grey sky with the terrifying funnel reaching towards the festival grounds.
Other ravers also snapped photographs of the freak weather as it loomed over Creamfields on August 26.
Like other attendees, Baker was shocked at what he’d seen and even uploaded the clip to Twitter, tagging the Met Office for explanation.
Sadly, it wasn’t long until the expert metrologists rained on his parade though.
While the Met Office wouldn’t rule out the freak weather phenomenon, it did state that it couldn’t confirm whether it was a true tornado.
Thanking him for the clip, it tweeted: “Can't quite see if that is touching the ground, but if the circulation is on the ground it would be a tornado.
“It looks like at least an impressive funnel cloud though.”
For those who didn’t pass GCSE geography, tornados are characterised by their vortex which drags along the ground.
These are formed usually during a thunderstorm, with the whirling air forming a vortex with the reduced pressure inside keeping the column stable.
To be a true tornado though, this vortex must reach the ground.
Surprisingly, in the UK we experience around 30 per year and some have even caused damage over the years.
Sadly though, don’t expect to be taken to the land of Oz any time soon as our tornados tend to be ‘small and short lived’, according to the MET’s official website.
Katherine Sidnell