Tornadoes tear across Britain

(CNN) -- Tornadoes ripped across southern and central Britain on Monday, tearing tiles off roofs and uprooting trees, Meteorological officals said.

Farnborough in Hampshire, Luton in Bedfordshire, Nuneaton in the West Midlands, and Northampton were among the affected areas, the UK Press Association reported.

In Farnborough, 20 homes were hit by a tornado, which pulled a roof off a garage and uprooted trees, firefighters said.

At around 0645 GMT a tornado tore through Luton, north of London, ripping up gardens and roof tiles.

A tornado hit Northampton just before 0600 GMT, uprooting trees and causing chaos on the roads, the Northampton Chronicle and Echo reported.

A spokeswoman for the UK's Meteorological Office said weather conditions at the time of the storms were conducive to tornadoes.

"The weather system that we are going through at the moment -- very windy with heavy rain -- is traveling across the country," she told the Press Association. E-mail to a friend