A FARMER described the terrifying moment yesterday when a tornado lifted him and his one tonne cattle trailer into the air.

Albert Parker said he feared for his life when he and the trailer were carried about ten yards by the "twister" before being dumped on the ground.

"The first thing I knew was the rubbish and stuff coming up from the golf course and realising it was a twister, I crouched behind the trailer.

"The next thing I knew it had been lifted about 2ft off the ground, then it was dumped and shoved into the ground.

"I ran to the back of a tractor and got hold of something and then, as suddenly as it started, it was over."

The twister struck Mr Parker's farm near the A64, north-east of York, yesterday at about 1pm - the second to hit North Yorkshire in a week.

Mr Parker is no stranger to the forces of nature - having survived the tidal waves in the Boxing Day Asian tsunami disaster.

He managed to flee the initial wave and clambered up the stairs of his holiday island hotel, where he spent five hours on the roof waiting to be rescued.

On his latest brush with extreme weather, he said: "It was very frightening. The trailer could have dropped on me. I wouldn't like to go through it again."

The tornado also knocked out the side of a greenhouse, ripped sheets from shed roofs and wrecked his garden.

Eyewitnesses on the York to Scarborough road said it moved with frightening force.

There were no initial reports of any injuries but some buildings alongside the A64 were damaged.

Meteorologists at nearby RAF Leeming, who monitored the phenomenon, said it was technically a funnel cloud because it did not make contact with the ground.

Last Thursday, residents in the market town of Thirsk witnessed more freak weather when a funnel cloud appeared above their rooftops during during a heavy thunderstorm.

And, only two-and-a-half weeks ago, the county was devastated when about 30 days worth of rain - about three inches - fell in two hours.