A SALE man believes he spotted the beginnings of a tornado forming over the north of the borough last week.

Steven Perrin, of Linten Road, was watching storm clouds develop over Stretford from the back garden of his home last Thursday when the phenomenon occurred.

He told Messenger at around 1.30pm he noticed a large black thundercloud formed over what he believes was the Stretford area which had a long winding column of cloud snaking from underneath the cloud base.

“Some people would call it a twister, others like storm chasers - which I’m not - would say they have to touch the ground to become one, but it looked to me like the beginnings of one. The cloud was very dark and the twister was fairly well formed from the bottom of the cloud base.

“I always watch out for this kind of thing because I have seen it happen on a couple of occasion before but I’ve never had a camera ready. This time I did.

“It lasted a few minutes from when I first saw it, but it may have been there longer.”

The Met Office said what Steven had probably seen was a funnel cloud, essentially the beginnings of a tornado but not as advanced or in any way damaging.

“If they don’t touch the ground they are called funnel clouds, to become a tornado the spiral has to reach the ground,” said the Met Office’s John Hammond.

“They’re usually associated with clouds called cumulonimbus which bring some pretty heavy rain showers and thunderstorms, and which have lots of air swirling up and down inside them. You then get this rotational effect that comes out of the base of the cloud. If the conditions are right they can go down to the ground when it can, if the conditions are right, then become a twister.

“Twisters are part of our climate though. We get around 30 a year, but the funnel clouds are quite common.”