Shocking CCTV footage from Pomas in southern France has shown the ghastly moment a tornado ripped apart buildings and sent debris flying, and the mess of destruction that it had made in the village.
The tornado hit Pomas, a small village in France's Aude department, on 24 August 2026 during severe thunderstorms in southern France. Although social media posts show that the footage mentions an EF3-rated tornado on August 26, reports from the time of the event put it on August 24. The extent of the tornado was also different from that reported in early reports as EF2 or EF3.
The CCTV footage is an amazing picture of the storm’s destruction. The weather changed for a few seconds as the tornado rained on the town of Pomas and hit the city. Roofing materials and other debris flew up in the air; buildings were destroyed.
Pomas, home to about 1,000 people, was particularly hard hit. Some 300 of the village’s 500 houses were damaged, and about 100 were thought to be potentially uninhabitable at the outset, said reports. Roofs were ripped out, windows shattered and parts of buildings badly damaged.
The local school was also destroyed, and the railway station was also destroyed. Emergency crews were sent in to clean the debris and make the damaged buildings safe. There were 120 firefighters and specialist rescue personnel at the site after the storm in the vicinity.
Insane CCTV footage of the EF3 tornado Pomas, France, on August 26, 2026. pic.twitter.com/3LS9kIywDp
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 7, 2026
Human impact was also significant. At that time, 39 people were injured, and about 20 were admitted to a local hospital; there were no serious cases reported. There were more than 40 injured as assessments were ongoing, but fortunately, no deaths were reported from the tornado.
The tornado developed during a wider outbreak of severe weather in southern France. It was on a thunderstorm warning at the time, and strong wind gusts and heavy storm activity were reported in the surrounding areas. Transport was disrupted, and power outages in parts of the Aude department were also reported.
What made the Pomas tornado so scary was how fast it happened. Residents reported seeing the sky darken in moments before a funnel descended quickly and moved towards the village. Le Monde reported that the entire destructive event had only lasted for 5 minutes.
Tornadoes can be difficult to spot as they originate on a relatively small scale compared to the weather systems that produce them. Météo-France warned of potentially strong thunderstorms and locally strong winds, and the tornado’s path could not be predicted ahead of time.
The horrible CCTV images of the storm have since spread widely online, and people have seen them very close up in the wind. The footage is a reminder that the power of tornadoes is not limited to the US and can happen in Europe too.
France has tornadoes every year, but most are relatively weak. The Pomas event is notable for the severe damage, with hundreds of homes destroyed in just seconds.
As residents rebuild, the Pomas footage remains one of the most striking visual records of the August 2026 severe-weather outbreak.
