The Met Office has warned that heavy and thundery showers with gusty winds could develop across the county this afternoon, with the Essex Weather Centre adding that a tornado may hit the region.

The Twitter account for the centre said: “Severe weather possible Weds afternoon with thundery downpours. With low cloud-bases risk of funnel clouds and maybe a tornado!”

With an average of around 34 tornadoes a year in the UK, the tunnels of spinning air are more common than people think, although a high proportion have low wind speeds and create little or no damage.

The remnants of tropical storm Henri are said to be bringing the severe weather into the area, and the Met Office have issued a yellow warning for rain until 9am tomorrow morning (September 17), with the possibility of some localised flooding.