As Storm Pierrick affected France this week, a tornado was reported to have damaged about 15 homes in Lestrem, a village of about 5,000 people in the Pas-de-Calais in northern France. The tornado formed as part of a series of severe thunderstorms that hit the region on Monday night. Winds reached about 75mph (120km/h), making this an EF0 event, the lowest strength for tornado classification.
A second line of thunderstorms developed across France that night, spanning from the Belgian border in the north to the Spanish border in the south. In total, storms produced more than 27,000 lightning strikes across France, about 7,000 of which were cloud-to-ground.
