Imagine reaching a Spanish airport for your flight home to Britain only to be told you cannot board, despite having lived legally in the UK for eight years and holding settled status. That is what happened to Nidia Webb after the UK’s digital immigration system linked her eVisa to her identical twin sister. 

Webb was left trying to resolve the problem from Spain, even though there was no question that she had the right to live in Britain. Her experience is a warning for British residents travelling abroad who rely on a digital immigration record to prove their right to return.

When the system gets it wrong

Webb discovered the problem when she tried to travel back to Britain. Her settled status was still valid, but the information attached to her eVisa did not correctly identify her. Instead, her record had become linked to her twin sister’s details. Home Office staff told Webb that this was a “known technical issue” affecting some twins.

The result was a problem that could not simply be explained away at the airport. The airline needed to establish that Webb had permission to enter the UK, while the digital system was presenting the wrong information. She spent hours trying to get the matter sorted before she was eventually allowed to travel.

Why this concerns British travellers

The UK’s move to eVisas means that many people no longer rely on a physical document to demonstrate their immigration status. Instead, their details are stored digitally and can be checked by carriers before they travel. That creates a potential problem if the information is incorrect.

Government guidance warns that a carrier may not allow a passenger to travel if their immigration status cannot be verified. For someone returning from Spain, that means a problem with a UK immigration record can stop the journey before the passenger even reaches Britain. The person may have every legal right to return, but the airline still needs to be able to confirm it.

Check before leaving Spain

British residents who rely on an eVisa should check their UKVI account before travelling. The passport they intend to use must be linked to the account, while their name, date of birth and immigration status should all be correct. This is particularly relevant for anyone who has recently renewed a passport or changed their personal details.

UKVI also has an online service for reporting errors with an eVisa. Checking before a trip gives travellers time to deal with an error while they are still at home. Discovering the same problem at a Spanish airport is a very different situation, particularly if the flight is due to leave within hours.

A known problem for some twins

Webb’s case is unusual because the error involved her identical twin, but the Home Office has confirmed that problems of this type are known to occur. The department said that more than 10 million people have successfully used eVisas and that most errors are resolved within 24 hours.

Webb’s experience nevertheless demonstrates the consequence when the digital record does not correctly match the person presenting their passport. She had not overstayed, her settled status had not expired and she had not lost her right to live in Britain, the system simply had the wrong person attached to her record.

Your right to return still needs to be visible

For British residents travelling between Spain and the UK, the warning is simple: check the digital record before travelling. Make sure the passport you will use is linked to the correct UKVI account and that the information displayed matches your identity. If something is wrong, report it before heading to the airport.

An eVisa is intended to make proving immigration status easier, but Webb’s experience shows what happens when the information behind it fails. You can have a completely valid right to live in Britain and still be left on the wrong side of the boarding gate if the system cannot prove it.

A huge tornado tore through southern France on Monday afternoon, ripping roofs from homes and cutting roads as violent storms battered the Aude region near Carcassonne.

Dramatic videos filmed around Pomas show a large funnel cloud sweeping across the countryside as trees are whipped about and debris is thrown through the air. Damage was reported to homes, particularly roofs, while several roads were blocked by fallen trees.

French weather forecasters had already warned of dangerous thunderstorms, with Aude among 22 departments placed on orange alert. Météo-France said storms could bring torrential rain, large hail and powerful wind gusts across much of southern France.

Here’s another angle of the tornado that developed in France today.

Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/1LEgo06Rtc

— Met4Cast – UK Weather (@Met4CastUK) August 24, 2026

Tornado strikes near Carcassonne

The tornado was observed at around 5pm near Pomas, south of Carcassonne, as a powerful supercell thunderstorm moved through the area. Reports from local emergency services described multiple operations involving roofs that had been torn away. Specialist rescue and debris-clearance teams were also sent to the affected area.

No serious injuries had been reported at the time of the latest updates, although authorities were still assessing the situation and checking properties. Around 58 firefighters and 15 gendarmes were mobilised, while an operational command centre was activated in the Aude prefecture to coordinate the response.

Road users were also affected, with several departmental roads closed after trees came down. Storm conditions produced wind gusts of 117 km/h at Arquettes-en-Val and 105 km/h at Lezignan-Corbieres, while intense rainfall was recorded in several parts of the department.

Hailstones measuring up to around 5cm were also reported close to the tornado, adding another hazard to an already dangerous afternoon.

Vuelta a Espana stage abandoned in giant hailstorm

Conditions became so violent elsewhere in the region that the weather also brought the Vuelta a Espana to an extraordinary halt. Riders were just 15 kilometres from the finish of Monday’s 174-kilometre stage between Gruissan-Aude and Font Romeu when a torrential hailstorm hit the peloton on the climb towards Col de Mont-Louis. Race leader Tadej Pogacar was seen signalling to riders to stop as hail battered the road. Competitors subsequently took shelter wherever they could, including inside a roadside hotel. Organisers later cancelled the entire stage, meaning there was no winner and no stage times were recorded.

More severe weather expected across France

🌪️ Vidéo exceptionnelle de la #tornade qui a touché les environs de Carcassonne !

Des grêlons de plusieurs centimètres, jusqu’à 3 à 5 cm, ont également touché les secteurs proches. Mais c’est surtout la tornade qui a causé d’importants dégâts, avec notamment des habitations… pic.twitter.com/KVTBgWanFG

— vigiprevention_meteo (@VigipreventionM) August 24, 2026

Monday’s tornado was part of a much wider outbreak of severe thunderstorms affecting southern and central parts of France. Meteorological services warned that powerful storms could continue to bring torrential downpours, large hail, intense lightning and damaging wind gusts. Some areas could receive 30 to 50mm of rain in an hour, with locally higher totals possible.

Residents and visitors in affected areas have been advised to avoid unnecessary travel during the worst storms, stay away from trees and metal structures during lightning activity, and never drive through flooded roads.

Anyone in the path of the storms is also being urged to follow official warnings rather than rely on videos or unverified reports circulating on social media.

The humble potato could become more expensive this autumn after France’s extreme summer weather wiped out almost a quarter of its expected crop, with the fallout potentially reaching supermarkets and farmers across Europe. French growers are forecasting a 23 per cent drop in production, equivalent to around two million tonnes fewer potatoes than last year.

The scale of the loss could put pressure on European supplies at a time when farmers are already dealing with increasingly difficult growing conditions.  For Spanish potato producers, however, France’s losses could bring an unexpected change after a year of low prices caused by abundant European supplies.

France’s crop takes a huge hit

Five periods of extreme heat combined with an exceptional lack of water have left French potato fields badly affected. The National Union of Potato Producers (UNPT) expects the average yield for table potatoes to fall to 37.4 tonnes per hectare, compared with 43.5 tonnes in 2025. That would make 2026 one of France’s worst potato-growing years in more than three decades, with the yield only beaten for severity by the drought-hit 2022 season.

 The reduction is particularly serious because French growers had already planted less land this year following a difficult 2025 season marked by oversupply and weak prices. Potato acreage across the main north-west European producing countries had also been cut substantially.  Now farmers are dealing with a smaller planted area and much lower yields.

Heat has damaged more than the harvest

The weather has affected the potatoes themselves, not simply the final quantity, extreme temperatures and dry soil can restrict tuber development, leaving potatoes smaller and affecting their suitability for particular markets. That creates problems for growers supplying food processors, which buy potatoes according to specific size and quality requirements.

Some farmers could therefore find themselves unable to deliver the quantities agreed in their contracts. The UNPT wants contracted volumes to be adjusted to reflect what growers can actually produce, rather than leaving farmers facing additional costs because the weather has reduced their harvest. 

€400 million in losses

The financial consequences are already being counted, the UNPT estimates that French potato growers could suffer at least €400 million in losses as a result of the failed harvest and is calling for exceptional support.

Farmers still have to cover the costs involved in growing the crop even when fewer potatoes are produced, while those supplying processors face the added difficulty of meeting contracts. The organisation has warned that growers should not be left to carry the economic consequences of the extreme weather alone. 

A summer the potatoes could not withstand

France’s potato crisis comes after an extraordinary run of weather. The country endured repeated heatwaves and severe water shortages, with July particularly brutal for agriculture. The prolonged combination of heat and dry conditions has affected crops across France, with potato producers among those now seeing the consequences in their fields.

The problem is not isolated to France either, potato-growing areas across north-western Europe have been dealing with reduced planting and worsening drought conditions, while EU crop monitoring has forecast potato yields across the bloc at 6 per cent below the five-year average. France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands  also form part of Europe’s major potato-producing belt, if several major producers harvest less at the same time, there are fewer alternative supplies available when buyers start looking for potatoes.

Spain could benefit

Spanish growers entered this season from a very different position, abundant European production last year contributed to weak potato prices, leaving farmers struggling with a market where supply was plentiful. France’s expected 23 per cent fall could change that balance.

A tighter European supply could increase demand for potatoes from other producing countries, including Spain, potentially giving Spanish growers some relief from the low prices that have affected them. It is too early to predict how much Spanish prices could rise. The final French harvest has not yet been collected, and production elsewhere will determine how much potato is actually available. But France’s projected loss is large enough to alter the European market.

What happens next

The 23 per cent figure is still a forecast, and the final size of the French crop will only become clear as harvesting progresses. For growers, the immediate priority is getting what remains of the crop out of the ground and establishing how much can actually be sold.

For consumers, the important question will be whether the reduced French supply is absorbed elsewhere in Europe or eventually feeds through into tighter availability and higher prices. After a year when European farmers were struggling with too many potatoes and prices that were too low, France is now heading into an autumn with the opposite problem. The fields will determine just how serious that shortage becomes