Different Winter Weather

robbie29 · January 26, 2006

whilst there seems to be a strange pattern to the weather atm , i think some may find this interesting.....

The storm of November 26-27 th 1703, was the most disastrous to ever hit england, and the author Daniel Defoe wrote an excellent account of it in his diaries.

A depression approached South-west England and moved North-eastward across wales and the middlands and into Yorkshire. Gale force south-south-west winds blew on the afternoon of November the 26th, causing widespread damage and flooding along the Severn Valley.

The Eddystone Lighthouse disappeared without trace along with Henry Winstanly its designer, who was visiting it at the time. The storm increased in intensity and reached its peak between 2am and 5 am on November the 27th

The average wind speed was more than 100mph- hurricane-force- and it is estimated that 8,000 lives were lost, mainly at sea. Twelve men-o`-war were wrecked on the Goodwin sands and 400 windmills blown down. Hundreds of churches were damaged and around 800 house were destroyed.

Defoe noted that 17,000 trees were blown down in Kent alone, and an estimated 4,00 were lost in the new forest. Further damage was inflicted on craft along the south coast and in the thames estuary. In recent times, the only storm that compares in intensity would be that which battered southern, south-eastern and eastern counties, including the London area, on the night of October 15-16th 1987.

Thankfully, only 18 people were killed but the destruction was wide spread

Ian D Thomas

BBC radio

Robbie.