Residents just see weed after freak storm hits homes

PUZZLED residents found something fishy about the weather when it started raining seaweed in their quiet street.

Homes, gardens and cars were littered with the stuff after a freak mini tornado carried it from a beach 20 miles away.

Weather experts believe the weather spout sucked it up from Clevedon in North Somerset and then dumped inland at Berkeley, Glos.

Engineer Dr Richard Overton, 55, and his wife Kay, filled a bucket of the green slime from their front garden.

Richard said: “I looked out of the window after a very big storm finished and to my amazement there were lots of flakes of seaweed scattered over the garden.

“I’ve heard stories of fish being picked up and dumped by storms but never seaweed. I was just so surprised.”

Neighbour Steven Belton added: “We had really heavy rain yesterday, our garden was almost flooded.

Strange occurrence ... Naomi Sheldon, 16, looks at the seaweed deposited in her street

SWNS

“We didn’t really notice anything out of the ordinary but after speaking to Richard and Kay we found quite a lot of the seaweed in out driveway.

“It’s very strange — so, so odd.”

Weather expert Ian Fergusson from the Met Office said the bizarre situation may have occurred because of thunderstorms over Clevedon.

He said: “At the same time as this incident was reported there were several thunderstorms in the area, one of which was pictured by satellites on a nearby beach.

“If one of the funnel clouds touched down onto the beach, making it a tornado, it could have quite possible picked up the seaweed and other debris if the tide was out and then later dumped it down the road at Berkeley Heath.

“It is a very strange event but it is possible. Look out for fish in your garden too!”