Tornado in Germany: roof parts "whirled through the air over several 100 meters"

A tornado has now caused destruction in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The German Weather Service retrospectively classified him in the F1 category - no injuries are known.

Borken / Weseke - A tornado that swirled through the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Borken caused a lot of chaos on the afternoon of May 25th.

In the Weseke district, the weather phenomenon damaged roofs, uprooted trees and caused further damage.

The local fire brigade, which worked with the team from the building yards until the evening hours, draws the following conclusion on its website: "The tornado damaged around 30 roofs of single-family houses and covered carports and garden sheds, some of which were several 100 meters through the air whirled.

Around 50 trees were damaged and around 10 trees were completely uprooted ”.

There is still no estimate of the financial extent of the damage.

Tornado in North Rhine-Westphalia: German weather classifies based on the damage caused

The following day, the German Weather Service confirmed that it was a tornado. "It was the third tornado in Germany in 2021," DWD spokesman Andreas Friedrich told

. Tornadoes are small-scale air vortices in which extremely high wind speeds can occur - they usually occur in connection with thunderstorms and, depending on the strength, can cause a swath of devastation. The second German tornado of the year also occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia on May 19, at that time in Blüggelscheidt.

The windhose in Borken had ground contact with its trunk and was classified on the so-called Fujita scale in the F1 range, which includes wind speeds between 118 and 180 kilometers per hour, explains Friedrich.

The rating scale is based on the damage incurred and ranges from category F0 with broken branches to level F5, in which entire houses are torn from the foundation. 

Tornado in Borken: Unfamiliar even for the fire department chief

Compared to the

, the head of operations at the Borken fire brigade, Stefan Döking, said that although tornadoes are not uncommon in the area, the events of May 25th were a bit more extraordinary: “I can't remember that in mine now a tornado has swept through the town for 25 years, ”said Döking.

He has also never seen a tornado of this magnitude. 

List of rubric lists: © Screenshot / Facebook / Borken fire brigade / Photo: private