Homes were left without electricity and rivers burst their banks as heavy rain and strong winds hit Oxfordshire on Thursday evening.

The electricity supply was cut off to 1,795 customers in Yarnton, Islip and Kidlington at about 6.30pm. Within 20 minutes, 1,000 of them had been reconnected and engineers were working last night to restore power to the rest.

Meanwhile the Environment Agency put flood watches on the Thames through Oxfordshire, at Eynsham and Sandford, as well as one on the River Evenlode, in west Oxfordshire.

Flood Watches warn residents their properties could be in danger of flooding, although there were no reports of flooded homes last night. Oxfordshire had been on tornado alert yesterday shortly before a 100mph twister ripped through London.

The Oxford-based Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (Torro) issued a weather warning for south and central England on its website less than an hour before the tornado struck.

Firefighters were also called to electricity cables and poles which blew down in high winds in Watlington at 8.12pm yesterday and to a tree which fell down in Kennington at 7.26pm.

A ferry service will be provided at Sandford Lock while Environment Agency engineers remove a dangerous rotting willow tree that lost two branches in heavy winds.

The path between the lock and the Kings Arms pub on the opposite bank was closed from 4pm yesterday and is expected to re-open on Sunday. The ferry service will run between 7am and 7pm today and tomorrow.

Despite a third month of heavy, well above average rainfall, Thames Water has insisted a hosepipe and sprinkler ban is still necessary because of low groundwater levels.

Forty per cent more rain fell on Oxfordshire in November than on average for the month (87mm compared with an average of 62mm), making it the 17th wettest November in Oxfordshire in the 123 years since records began in 1883.