The Christmas Day gale of 1990

[Weather-history]

Christmas Day 1990 was a very stormy day for much of the UK. A very deep depression was to the north of the UK with a central pressure of 955mb. An active front passed through the UK bringing heavy rain and violent squalls, indeed, there were tornadoes reported in the West Country. Wind speeds gusted up to 80mph causing structural damage to buildings and bringing down power lines blacking out around 100,000 homes in the south and west of England. There was flooding due to the heavy rain, the run up to Christmas had been wet and windy.

[MP-R]

Although I hadn't been born yet, my parents said how on Christmas Day that year, there was a huge thunderstorm for about half an hour over Yatton with torrential rain, very gusty winds and eventually hailstones. They said it happened around 4pm as they had been walking in the sun, black clouds came over from the southwest and the stor started just after sunset. I'm jealous. It would probably be quite cool to have a thunderstorm on Christmas Day.

[Rustynailer]

The view from Shanklin's Littlestairs rd cliffs, looking at Sandown Pier in the rough seas just after dinner on Christmas day 1990, sorry about the quality It was a memorable day, the only Christmas Day storm i have ever experienced.

Russ.