A tornado was spotted in the Elshout portion of Drunen in the Netherlands on Sunday night. Windows were broken and roofs flew off buildings.
A local, Heidi de Hart, reported hearing a very loud noise like a pop, and that a barn collapsed.
“I was inside watching TV, and the doors were vibrating,” she said on Facebook. “Pretty scary, such a tornado!!!”
Richie van den Bosch, a meteorologist, was standing outside when he saw the funnel come out of a dark cloud, and captured a picture.
Den Bosch said that a street is littered with pieces from buildings and even a large piece from a tree. Later, he said that the damage “is greater than expected.”
One roof is partially collapsed and a beam was found six houses away. Other roofs were damaged, with reports of flying debris.
Several experts the news agency Omroep Brabant spoke with are calling it a tornado, which “is not so common in the Netherlands.”
Only about 20 tornadoes are spotted per year in the Netherlands, although Nikolai Dotzek of the Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre in Germany estimates that there are 35 each year. That’s the second-highest, by his estimation, in Europe (The United Kingdom is first with 50).
Reinier van den Berg, another meteorologist in the Netherlands, said via Twitter that he believes it was a tornado.
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