SOUTH America has El Nino, the Far East has its monsoons - now the North-East has woken up to its own bizarre meteorological phenomenon, a "gust front".

The Northern Echo's switchboard was inundated by calls yesterday from startled residents reporting a mini-tornado on Tuesday evening.

Marina Massey, who lives in Newton Aycliffe, said: "I've never experienced anything like it - it was frightening.

"There was this horrendous noise, it was rain, hail and wind, and it was really scary."

Margery Burton, of Shildon, said: "The noise outside was absolutely terrible and I didn't understand what it was.

"The wind was blowing and the rain was lashing down. It was so loud I couldn't hear the television."

There were other calls from Ferryhill and the Aycliffe area, all reporting the same short but intense combination of high wind, rain and hail.

Dave Hardaker from Newton Aycliffe, who has been keeping weather records in the town for more than 20 years, described the conditions as "very rare".

He recorded a quarter of an inch of rain in ten minutes, accompanied by hail and a drop in temperature of 4C.

Mr Hardaker said: "There was a very strong cold front and there would have been the potential for a mini-tornado to form, but I didn't see any of the damage that would have associated with such a thing."

A spokesman for the Newcastle Met Office said the phenomenon was unlikely to have been a mini-tornado - more a sort of mini-mini-tornado.

He said: "It's difficult to say exactly what they saw, but almost certainly it was a gust front."

l Seventeen severe flood warnings were in force across southern England, the Midlands and Wales last night after Tuesday night's storms