Forgotten British Storms

[knightstorm]

Everyone seems to remember 87 for obvious reasons i.e, it wasn't properly predicted and it caused more chaos in just a few hours than any other British weather event in living memory, people also remember than Burn's Day Storm in 1990 and some also mention the Christmas and Nu Year storms of 97/98, and more recently the massive storms that hit northern Europe and the UK last January. But who remembers these?

1996 - Tail end of Hurricane Lilly brings 80mph winds to Southern England!

2000 - Night of 29th/30th October brought most fearsome autumnul storm since 87 when 90mph plus winds hit South-East accompanied by heavy rain, flood chaos followed!

2002 - Sunday 27th October, people woke up for breakfast time to high winds across the whole of Southern England and Wales, 85mph is recorded in London, and 100mph is recorded in Bristol!

You people have short memories, the one I'll never forget was the 29th Oct 2000 storm it was the night after my 14th birthday and I have never seen wind like it my bedroom window was shaking and I thought it was gonna smash in, the noise sounded like an express train rushing right past me, the rain was so heavy aswell, I was terryfied and didn't think I would live to see the next day let alone 15!!

[Essan]

The early Feb 1989 storm (forget the exact date) that dumped 11" rain in 48 hours over the West Highlands, producing floods that swept away Inverness Railway Bridge

The strongest winds ever recorded: 13th Feb 1989 - 146mph at Frazerburgh in Scotland

The Jan 2005 "Hebridean Hurricane" which, were it a tropical storm, would have been a Cat 2 storm

[knightstorm]

Was that 2005 storm the one which produced 125mph winds, and made the news the next morning?? I think I remember that one, cause it got quite windy down south aswell, but nothing like that bad I would say we experienced 50-60mph gusts!

[Rustynailer]

The January 1976 left Cheshire in a bit of a mess, there were trees all over the place when we went driving around surveying damage with my father. Manchester airport tunnel road was an amazing sight as all the Elm that had died with Dutch elm disease had blown down blocking the road, we drove past just as they were bulldozing the remains away, it looked like a war zone. I was 11 at the time, I was praised by my teacher for being the only person in class to draw a picture of the storms effects in art class

Regards,

Russ

Edited October 18, 2007 by Rustynailer

[knightstorm]

It's weird what people forget, for example everyone remembers the 76 heatwave but what about 95!? Anyone who's old enougth that thinks of snow thinks of 63 but what about 1991!?

[Thundery wintry showers]

I remember the February 1998 one. Following an exceptionally mild February, severe gales hit north-east England on the 27th February, blowing the garage roof off my house. For northern areas this marked the transition to cold snowy weather, but the coldest air never really made it into southern areas.

Perhaps the severest storm of recent years to hit the North East was that of 8 January 2005- there was a lot of structural damage about. Sometime around 29 January, there were destructive gales in 2000 and also 2002.

I think the heat of Summer 1995 is quite well-remembered, but the point about summers is nonetheless good. For instance, Summer 1989 doesn't get mentioned a lot, but in some regions, notably a large part of eastern England, it was sunnier than both 1976 and 1995, and it also followed on from a May that broke many sunshine records.

[Paul Sherman]

Think its going to take you some time to get used to the Forums Knightstorm, I am going to move this into Historic Weather,

Please try to keep the Storms area for Convective Risks, Recent Storms (This Week) or other Storm related Topics

Thanks

Paul Sherman

**Will Leave a Link in this Forum though**

[Summer of 95]

I remember the February 1998 one. Following an exceptionally mild February, severe gales hit north-east England on the 27th February, blowing the garage roof off my house. For northern areas this marked the transition to cold snowy weather, but the coldest air never really made it into southern areas.

Perhaps the severest storm of recent years to hit the North East was that of 8 January 2005- there was a lot of structural damage about. Sometime around 29 January, there were destructive gales in 2000 and also 2002.

I think the heat of Summer 1995 is quite well-remembered, but the point about summers is nonetheless good. For instance, Summer 1989 doesn't get mentioned a lot, but in some regions, notably a large part of eastern England, it was sunnier than both 1976 and 1995, and it also followed on from a May that broke many sunshine records.

Neither the October 2000 or 2002 storms did much in the North East (where I was for both of them) as I recall; 2000 produced a few gusts and a night of heavy rain while 2002 really was a "south only" thing; and in South Wales in 1987 I distinctly remember wondering what all the fuss was all about (the strange thing is we can't have missed it by much there; only 50-odd miles to the south coast of England as the crow flies- yet there was no damage at all).

Christmas Eve 1997 was probably the worst round here (Shrewsbury) in recent years, another one I remember was that Saturday afternoon in March 2004 which packed a real punch across central parts of England, bringing down trees and killed someone at a football match as well as damaging the railway station somewhere (Nottingham or Leicester I think).

Summer 1989 had the 1994 and 2006 pattern from what I remember; very good until the beginning of August but then went a bit pear-shaped; another one I've mentioned before was July 1999 which in this area was probably the best summer month between 1995 and 2006.

[knightstorm]

2000 storm was very much the south, particularly the south east! Not sure about 2002 I think it was abit more widespread, but still generally south of Birmingham, I think the south west suffered worse on this occasion though! B)

[Andy Bown]

2002 - Sunday 27th October, people woke up for breakfast time to high winds across the whole of Southern England and Wales, 85mph is recorded in London, and 100mph is recorded in Bristol!

I remember that one because I gave a few elderly ladies a lift to church (their normal driver was unwell) and recall bending head first into the wind to provide some shield to the ladies! It was also memorable for the fact that the other conditions were generally fine all day with hazy sunshine and only fleeting light showers.

[knightstorm]

Yeah I seem to remember that aswell, it was quite warm and sunny. When you think of storms you expect the sky to be grey or dark or there to be heavy rain aswell, but this wasn't the case in 02 if it wernt for the severe winds it would have been a very pleasant autumn day! :huh:

[Cookie]

Was that 2005 storm the one which produced 125mph winds, and made the news the next morning?? I think I remember that one, cause it got quite windy down south aswell, but nothing like that bad I would say we experienced 50-60mph gusts!

yes it was, I will allways rember that night for the rest of my for as long as I rember,

january storm 2005 wind speeds table and chart for you knight storm.

Table 1: Selected wind gusts recorded during the 11th and 12th

Station

Wind Gust

(mph)

Aanoch Mor (3000ft)*:142

Cairngorm (4000ft)*:139

North Rona, W Isles*: 134

Carloway, Isle of Lewis:116

Sule Skerry:115

Barra:106

Benbecula:103

Stornoway:101

Loch Glascarnoch:96

Fair Isle :92

Lerwick: 91

just look how tight those isobars are

I can also just about rember the 1997/8 storm,

Edited October 21, 2007 by cookie

[The PIT]

How about Windy periods Feb 19th 2002 until the 27th. One quiet day amongst that run. Or Mar the 7th 2002 where we hit 81 mph.

http://www.sheffieldweather.co.uk/feb02.html

http://www.sheffieldweather.co.uk/mar02.html

Or Jan 20th 2005 when we hit 83 mph

http://www.sheffieldweather.co.uk/jan05.html

I think that one was unforecast and never really got a mention.

[Terminal Moraine]

How about Windy periods Feb 19th 2002 until the 27th. One quiet day amongst that run. Or Mar the 7th 2002 where we hit 81 mph.

I'd agree with you there, Pit. We had a gust of 93 mph on Feb 22nd 2002 and 82 on March 7th.

How about Feb 15th/16th 1962 for a real gale. I wasn't keeping records then but gusts definitely around 90 mph throughout the morning of the 16th, even on relatively low ground where I was living at the time. Tremendous amount of damage to trees and property.

T.M

[dogs32]

the 80s for me....we dont seem to get the spanish plume anymore...I personally think the yrs 2000+..are rubbish compared to the 80s

[Paranoid]

I can remember a storm in 2002, which didn't seem to be that severe at the time but i remember that 6 people were killed by it. I can also remember the 2005 storm quite well, my roof creaked like hell, and my most vivid memory is of the recent January "hurricane" this year. Was annoyed because we didn't get to stay off school, and i was sat there worrying the chemistry lab windows would blow in

[Weather-history]

9th/10 Feb 1988. That was a quite gale that affected a larger area than the October 1987 storm did of just 4 months before.

26th Feb 1990, the Towyn storm surge.

23rd/24th January 1993 gale.

12/13th December 2000 gale. That heralded a change and a break from the non stop zonality of autumn 2000.

Edited October 23, 2007 by Mr_Data

[Doc]

Still have the satelitte image of that Jan 2005 storm saved on my computer - impressive!

[Thundery wintry showers]

I often randomly browse the archives out of curiosity, locating weather events from before I started taking weather records. As it happens, the 9/10 February 1988 storm was one of the first ones I found back in my Lancaster years, and I've always been surprised at how little-remembered it is:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119880210.gif

I remember finding a similar one on 5/6 January 1991:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119910106.gif

and, further back, the one on 12/13 January 1984 must surely have caused some destruction:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119840113.gif

[Weather-history]

As it happens, the 9/10 February 1988 storm was one of the first ones I found back in my Lancaster years, and I've always been surprised at how little-remembered it is:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/ra/19...00119880210.gif

It was wild that night here. I think there was a little bit of sleet mixed in with the squally rain. It must have been really wild over the Pennines.

The next day walking to school, noticed that part of Rumbelows' gable had collapsed. Who remembers Rumbelows?

Edited October 23, 2007 by Mr_Data

[Thundery wintry showers]

Ironically, I've just 'Googled' Rumbelows and February 1988, and the following Net-weather topic from mid 2005 came up:

http://www.netweather.tv/forum/index.php?s...mp;#entry393844

Seems that Mr D and myself made much the same points back then- I have to admit I'd completely forgotten about it as well!

[knightstorm]

Why do people use the term hurricane when they're describing European Wind Storms!? We don't get hurricane's end of, our sea's arn't warm enougth!

[rossco89]

the clearest one i remember is the 1998 boxing day storm that produced winds of over 105mph in my area. It was breezy to say the least. It also flipped planes at prestiwck airport. I remember my bedroom window coming in and the floorboards lifting up by at least 1ft, the ceiling was a mess as it was moving as well. The noise was deafening, between the wind picking the tiles from the roof, the chimney coming down, the loft door making a racket, the house shaking and the doors rattling, thats what makes it so memorable. Where my grandparent live, they must have had winds of about 120MPH, there was buildings flattend, garages carried down the street, chimney stack on a whole street were moved into kitchens and gardens, roofs cmpletely blow apart, going up there was like a war zone. They were without power for 6 weeks.

[knightstorm]

Yeah I think we all remember the boxing day 98 storm, but the storms which hit a year previously during Dec 97 and the start of Jan 98 lasted alot longer and therefore caused huge amounts of damage!

[Evening thunder]

how about just last year the night of 2nd-3rd december which mainly affected sw england and wales where the tamar bridge (plymouth) recorded a gust of 113mph

which i think was more than the storm of 18th jan 2007

which people seem to remember a lot more.