The Great Storm Of 1987

[kold weather]

discuss about the great storm of 1987,your experiances and also synoptically what happened.

It was the worst storm to hit the U.k for two hundred years,with a central pressure of 953(I think!)

with gusts of over 95Mph,it certainly was a intense storm that sturck unexpectedly,and I think sir Micheal fish will laways be remembered for that night.

[Kent Snow]

Un-believably I slept through it, and woke up in the morning to be greated by devestation, with countless trees fallen and roads blocked. Plus no School!

[Guest Phil_Uk]

Wathched the weather forecast that morning, didn't realise until some were discussing "Hear what happened in London last night?" Then soon found out that Sevenoaks became erm. No-oaks.

Lowest ever pressure recorded though by my records was 925.5Mb at Crieff, Tayside on 26th January 1884.

Highest being 1054.7Mb at Aberdeen on 31 January 1903.

Phil.

[Guest Mr_S]

one of the most exciting nights ive experienced and the most terrifyin to date!

hearing very strong wings like a continued roar.... hearing the tiles sliding off roofs, a tree faling ontop of a caravan and General devestation happening all around. The most worrying was hearing (before a few minutes later the power going out) on the radio that the general advice was "to stay in doors and keep away from the windows as we are right under the eye of a hurricane". Possibly hyped up but non the less being 4/5yrs old i slept in my parents room under their bed lol

[P.K.]

The most worrying was hearing (before a few minutes later the power going out) on the radio that the general advice was "to stay in doors and keep away from the windows as we are right under the eye of a hurricane".

I'm guessing I slept through it but then I was only 2 at the time

- Just a bit windy looking at this.

[Adi F]

My memories of the 1987 storm was helping the fire brigade removing downed trees but my best memory was getting back to camp and finding that at least 50 yachts had been washed up onto the airfield in the storm serge

[Crowded Trousers]

I don't remember anything, I was only 2 months old.

Apparently the weather started to turn duller on the day I was born on July 14th :lol:

That would match my 666 member number than :lol:

Damn bad luck <_<

[kold weather]

Yep P.K looks just abit windy doesn't it!!!!

[Fat Andy]

I still remember that night well. I was living in Wallington, near Croydon in South London. The wind woke me up. There was no power, gradually the radio stations went off the air one by one, leaving only "the Voice Of America" transmitting. I well remember sitting on the bed drinking tea (Gas Cooker!!) and watching the reflection of a candle in the picture window. The glass was bowing. At 1st light I ventured outside to find trees down, crushed cars, and blocked railway lines. I am about 1 mile from Oaks Park in Carshalton where they lost 10000 trees. It still hasn't recovered yet. Being thoroughly British, I still managed to get to work, walking the 5 Miles to Croydon, Climbing over trees on the way. Scary but fascinating night.

[kold weather]

very intresting,thanks Fat andy!

I do half bet that was scary as well,I wouldn't like to do that though,not really anyway.

[Kent Snow]

.  Being thoroughly British, I still managed to get to work, walking the 5 Miles to Croydon, Climbing over trees on the way.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:blink: :lol: :lol: So true! We're dedicated to our work!

[Nick H]

Absolutely amazing night.

Very clear memories of listening to the tiles being ripped off and the garden furniture cluttering outside. Got no sleep at all that night.

I think the 'best' thing about it was that it happened in the night, for 2 reasons: obviously if it happened during the day it would have caused a lot more problems and deaths but secondly the fact it happened during darkness made it seem that little more 'spooky', if you see what I mean.

[Roo]

I remember it very clearly as I was living at home in Sussex then. We lived on the greensand ridge north of the south downs and the wind was incredible....we had leaded light windows and thank goodness we did as they were buckling in about 1-2cm with every gust. What really struck me, was that at 3am in the moring the phone didn't stop ringing...everyone knew you'd be up and they were too...very odd!

We had 345 trees down in our village and it was cut off for several days...

The most amazing thing about that night was the lightning aswell, and the faux purple lightning caused by broken power cables flailing around in the wind and shorting...

Another thing which no-one ever seems to remember is that exactly one week before the hurricane, we had severe rain and flash flooding. I was coing back from my boyfriend's that night and we had to pull over as the rain was so bad (everyone else had to do the same and it was really eery, seeing all these cars just sitting in the rain all over the place)

[full_frontal_occlusion]

Then soon found out that Sevenoaks became erm. No-oaks

Correction, Sevenoaks became Oneoak.

A neighbours VW camper parked on her steep drive, was literally blown backwards across the road and into a garden fence, demolishing it in the process.

At the top of the road, a Scotts Pine had blown over taking out the telephone lines, and crashed into the streets electricity sub-station. We were without power for 36hrs and phones for nearly a week.

[Mammatus]

What a night! I was only 8 years old then and the memories are as clear as ever!

4AM - Sounded like a train heading for our house, one loud ROAR! Infact it scared the hell out of me! The gusts were incredible, I don't ever expect to see such weather again in Suffolk. We had no garden left by 8AM, fences all down, garden trees down, greenhouse windows smashed and blown out, Shed roof on the other side of the estate, TRUELY SEVERE!

Great to read everyone else's Storm '87 stories.

[Guest Mr_S]

I know this is a very old thread now but is there anyway 2 find a GFS & UKMO Chart for the storm of '87?

something i been meaning 2 ask for a few nights now but never got round 2

Thanks all,

Mr_S

[kold weather]

UKMO doesn't go back that far,but GFS does,heres the chart at midnight on 16th October 1987:

It certainly did rapidly deepen though,from 995mb on the night of the 15th to eventually getting down to 963mb i believe which makes it a 'bomb'

for a true look at the isobars of the night,look at P.K's image earlier in the thread.

[Guest Mr_S]

Thanks for the find KW.. much appreciated & i saw the chart on page 1 which got me remembering FAX / UKMO

[summer blizzard]

While it was a deep area of low pressure, it was it's track over southern England which caused the damage as there have been other storms equally as deep in October, here is an example as recently as 2004.

[Sugar79]

what was the storm of '87?? was it a hurricane?? people used to call it that but i didnt think it was, but did wonder if it was an ex hurricane?? I was very young back then I can just about remember it lol

[Paranoid]

The 87 storm was a European Windstorm, so neither a Hurricane or an Ex hurricane, though it's possible Hurricane Floyd(1987) played a part in its development.

[Mondy]

Jan 12 2005 as well CMD http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4168589.stm

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the hurricane that slammed into the Outer Hebrides. Despite being stronger than hurricane Katrina :blink: and causing loss of life in the Uists, there was little mention of it in the UK media (unlike the usual hysterics when a snowflake falls on a Kent road).

http://silversprite.wordpress.com/2006/01/

[Paranoid]

Does anyone have charts for the 2001 October Storm that killed 6 people? I can't remember the exact date but it caused quite a bit of damage. This far inland we rarely get winds like that.

[Paranoid]

Suppose it must be if it was in 2001. There was a severe Depression in 2000, but it must have been in 2001 because we had our new head at school, and she started when i was in Yr 5. I might be remembering something else though.

[Mondy]

Just borrowed Gorky's avatar image of one of the deepest depressions i've ever seen. I'm certain it was the tragic Jan 2005 storm. I might be wrong though..Clearly remember being amazed at the sheer shape of it.

The more i type away, i'm sure it was Jan 2005 - anyone got a chart for that?

:blink: :lol:

Actually, excuse my ignorance. How do you get archived wetterzentrale charts? Once into the site where do i click?

Edit: Think i've found the archives....silly telephone boxer, Mondy

Edited September 22, 2006 by Mondy the clumsy