County hit by freak bank holiday weather

8:00am Tuesday 8th May 2012 in News

A shopper struggles to make progress as a hailstorm hits Witney A shopper struggles to make progress as a hailstorm hits Witney

FREAK weather ripped tiles from houses, damaged trees and fences, and set off the alarms at a cinema yesterday.

During the freak storm at about 4pm yesterday, films at Witney’s Cineworld cinema were interrupted and audiences were told to leave.

Reports of ‘tornado-like weather and sheet rain were received around the north and west of the county, including Witney, Eynsham, Bicester and Kidlington.

Photographer Ric Mellis, from Witney, was at Cineworld with his 11-year-old son.

He said: “When we went out towards the exit, hailstones as big as frozen peas were falling.

“The supervisor said the storm had triggered all the alarms, therefore the evaucation procedure kicked in.

“We all got absolutely drenched.”

Jim Baxendale, from Kidlington, said the weather had torn slates from up to 12 houses in Cherwell Avenue.

He said: “It’s ripped fences up and ripped slates off the roofs.

“The lady next door said it was like a tornado.”

Police were called as two trees were felled by the winds along the Oxford Road, at Hampton Poyle.

Beryl Ross, said her house in Witney was hit by lightning which knocked tiles from the roof, one of which narrowly missed her son.

Comments (5)

6:34pm Tue 8 May 12

britman1 says...

First off Hi to everyone back home in Banbury . I had to laugh when i read this . I now live outside Saint Louis USA and last week on a Saturday we had a storm like this well kind of . It was on a bigger scale . First off we had the black sky then it rained big time we had 3 inches in about an hour . Then we had 3 tornado's on the ground about 5 miles from us . Now the reason why i find this funny . The part where Ric said we had frozen pea size hail well Ric we had hail here to but it started off as gold ball size then went to egg size and the best of all how about some cricket ball size hail. And we had trees down power lines down and thousands of cars damaged and buildings .Theres not much you can do when your doing 70 down the motorway and this happens .
First off Hi to everyone back home in Banbury . I had to laugh when i read this . I now live outside Saint Louis USA and last week on a Saturday we had a storm like this well kind of . It was on a bigger scale . First off we had the black sky then it rained big time we had 3 inches in about an hour . Then we had 3 tornado's on the ground about 5 miles from us . Now the reason why i find this funny . The part where Ric said we had frozen pea size hail well Ric we had hail here to but it started off as gold ball size then went to egg size and the best of all how about some cricket ball size hail. And we had trees down power lines down and thousands of cars damaged and buildings .Theres not much you can do when your doing 70 down the motorway and this happens . britman1

6:39pm Tue 8 May 12

LORD PETER MACVEY 0X2 6EG says...

britman1 wrote:
First off Hi to everyone back home in Banbury . I had to laugh when i read this . I now live outside Saint Louis USA and last week on a Saturday we had a storm like this well kind of . It was on a bigger scale . First off we had the black sky then it rained big time we had 3 inches in about an hour . Then we had 3 tornado's on the ground about 5 miles from us . Now the reason why i find this funny . The part where Ric said we had frozen pea size hail well Ric we had hail here to but it started off as gold ball size then went to egg size and the best of all how about some cricket ball size hail. And we had trees down power lines down and thousands of cars damaged and buildings .Theres not much you can do when your doing 70 down the motorway and this happens .
Wow golly gee, how big are those GOLD BALLS in the good old U.S. of A? We don't have them here in little old England.
[quote][p][bold]britman1[/bold] wrote: First off Hi to everyone back home in Banbury . I had to laugh when i read this . I now live outside Saint Louis USA and last week on a Saturday we had a storm like this well kind of . It was on a bigger scale . First off we had the black sky then it rained big time we had 3 inches in about an hour . Then we had 3 tornado's on the ground about 5 miles from us . Now the reason why i find this funny . The part where Ric said we had frozen pea size hail well Ric we had hail here to but it started off as gold ball size then went to egg size and the best of all how about some cricket ball size hail. And we had trees down power lines down and thousands of cars damaged and buildings .Theres not much you can do when your doing 70 down the motorway and this happens .[/p][/quote]Wow golly gee, how big are those GOLD BALLS in the good old U.S. of A? We don't have them here in little old England. LORD PETER MACVEY 0X2 6EG

6:46pm Tue 8 May 12

britman1 says...

opps i meant golf ball
opps i meant golf ball britman1

6:49pm Tue 8 May 12

LORD PETER MACVEY 0X2 6EG says...

britman1 wrote:
opps i meant golf ball
Did you mean OOPS. HEHE.
[quote][p][bold]britman1[/bold] wrote: opps i meant golf ball[/p][/quote]Did you mean OOPS. HEHE. LORD PETER MACVEY 0X2 6EG

2:40pm Thu 10 May 12

J B Blackett says...

LORD PETER MACVEY 0X2 6EG wrote:
britman1 wrote:
opps i meant golf ball
Did you mean OOPS. HEHE.
Did you mean Hee-Hee ?
[quote][p][bold]LORD PETER MACVEY 0X2 6EG[/bold] wrote: [quote][p][bold]britman1[/bold] wrote: opps i meant golf ball[/p][/quote]Did you mean OOPS. HEHE.[/p][/quote]Did you mean Hee-Hee ? J B Blackett

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