I guess there was a significant earthquake in Kent, actually striking near the Chunnel (!) entrance and reverberating throughout SE England, including parts of London. Chimneys apparently were knocked down, plaster cracked, but no major destruction or injuries.

In any case would not have wanted to be in the Chunnel and felt the shocks there!

After a tornado recently (apparently London area is in a Tornady Alley and they are not all uncommon, i ask

Is this Armaggedon for London?

Pal, PLEAZZZZZZZZZZZZE....now I <b>KNOW</b> you've got too much time on your hands !!!

Nah,

The meeja have got too many pages and too many channels.

Back when black and white telly was on ration, they wouldn't have given this kind of non-event houseroom.

It was an earth tremor.
Tornadoes are quite common in the UK
It's the bloody Channel Tunnel, not the Chunnel!

Tornado Alley? Hardly. There was one localised whirlwind that caused a bit of damage in a couple of streets a few months ago. There was one in Birmingham a few years ago.

We don't do Armageddon. Not cricket, you know.

A whirlwind is hardly the same as a tornado. (Flying dust and trash versus flying buildings and cars.)

As for an earthquake - almost every place on earth has them. As long as major things aren;'t being knocked down - or you're not sitting on top of the San Andreas fault - this is a total non-issue.

DOO-KEY:

Yes too much time since i no longer than better things to post than someone peeing behind a Burger King on the A-11 so need to post something - the jones you know.

If fact now to think about it i'm not sure the two are not related - the peeing incident and ensuing earthquake!

I live in KEnt and I didn't know anything about the earthquake until I saw it on the news, so I don't think it was quite 'reverberating throughout SE England' as dramatically as that sounds.

Per square mile, the UK has more tornadoes than any other country in the world

Alan, that's a fairly meaningless stat. Even the Met admits that UK tornadoes are, for the most part, much weaker and shorter lived than tornadoes in the U.S. According to the UK's meteorological services, &quot;The most powerful tornadoes occur in the USA and can cause a broad swathe of total destruction along their path.&quot;

People living in America's &quot;tornado alley&quot; would be very happy to exchange their tornadoes for the UK's.

I was watching one of those shock horror TV shows about tornadoes last night - some loon who does tours to them in the middle of a dozen ripping through South Dakota. Absolutely terrifying and HUGE clouds: we never get that.

You say tornado, we say &quot;Bit breezy today, isn't it?&quot;

PalenQ,

Not a significant earthquake.Without going to check, I think it was about 4.5. This is small. The reason all those thing collapsed is that earthquakes in this part of the world are rare and many of the buildings are very old. Who knows if current building codes include anything about earthquakes?

One very interesting item; I read a comment from an insurance company representative who was asked if the damage would be covered by insurance. He replied that of course it would be. Isn't this exactly what insurance is for? I don't think US insurance companies think this way, but I sure wish they did.

Josser, it was an earthquake.