Great Storm of 1987
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The Great Storm of 1987 occurred on October 15 and 16, 1987, when an unusually strong weather system caused winds to hit much of the south of England. It was the worst storm to hit England since the Great Storm of 1703 and was responsible for the deaths of approximately 23 people.
According to the Beaufort scale of wind intensities, the storm had sustained winds of hurricane force, although there are some who would use the term European windstorm to describe the system as the term hurricane refers to cyclones originating in North Atlantic, North and Northeastern Pacific, or the Central North Pacific. The storm had winds equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Although the storm was declared a rare event, expected only to happen on average every several hundred years, the Burns' Day storm hit the UK in January 1990, less than three years later and with comparable intensity.
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[edit] Origins
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The storm originated from a cold front in the Bay of Biscay that met with cold air coming from the north. When the two systems collided, a severe low pressure front developed with a central pressure of 958 mbar (comparable to a Category 3 hurricane, which typically has a central pressure between 945 and 964 mbar). How such a low pressure system could develop is still a mystery, but one theory is that it was as a result of the jet stream coming from America in the wake of Hurricane Floyd (1987) and exceptionally warm weather of the Bay of Biscay.
[edit] Michael Fish controversy
BBC meteorologist Michael Fish drew sharp criticism for reporting several hours before the storm hit, in seemingly flippant fashion: "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way… well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't". In fact his comments about a hurricane had nothing to do with the UK; they referred to Florida and were linked to a news story that immediately preceded the weather bulletin, but have been so widely misreported that the British public remain convinced they referred to the approaching storm. According to Michael Fish, the woman in question was actually a colleague's mother who was about to go on holiday in the Caribbean and had called regarding the hurricane to see if it was safe to travel.[1]
Fish went on to warn viewers in the UK to "batten down the hatches", saying it would be "very windy" across the south of England, but predicted that the storm would move further south along the English Channel and the British mainland would escape the worst effects. The remainder of his warning is frequently left out of re-runs which only adds to the public's misrepresentation of his forecasting that evening.
His analysis has been defended by weather experts. In particular, the lack of a weather reporting ship in the southwest of England, due to Met Office cutbacks, meant the only manner of tracking the storm was by using satellite data (automatic buoys had not been invented at the time). The storm was also a highly unusual occurrence and therefore very difficult to predict. Even if Fish had been talking about the approaching storm, he would still have been technically correct in his statement, as the storm of 1987 was neither tropical or post-tropical in nature, and therefore could not possibly be a hurricane.
[edit] Effects
The storm made landfall at Cornwall before tracking northeast towards Devon and then over the Midlands, going out to sea via The Wash. The strongest gusts, of up to 100 knots, were recorded along the southeastern edge of the storm, hitting mainly Essex and Kent.
The storm caused substantial damage over much of England, downing some 15 million trees (including six of the seven famous oak trees in Sevenoaks and most of the trees making up Chanctonbury Ring), blocking roads and railways and leaving widespread structural damage to buildings. Several hundred thousand people were left without power, which was not fully restored until more than two weeks later. Local electric utility officials later said they lost more wires in that single storm than they had in the preceding decade. At sea, as well as many small boats being wrecked, a ship capsized at Dover, a Sealink cross-channel ferry, the MV Hengist, was driven ashore at Folkestone, and the transmitting mast of the Radio Caroline pirate radio boat the Ross Revenge sustained apparently minor damage only to collapse in a force 10 gale the following month. In addition to the 19 lives lost in England, at least four more died in France. The storm cost the insurance industry £2 bn, this makes it the second most expensive UK weather event.[2]
The lack of reporting during this storm led to reforms in the way the Met Office reports severe weather, leading to substantially more warnings being issued in the future, the deployment of improved tracking devices and an increase in the depth of the simulations supported by the purchase of an additional Cray supercomputer. Warnings for the Burns' Day storm 3 years later were accurate and on time.
There are theories that knock-on effects from the Storm were contributing causes of the Black Monday stock exchange collapse.
[edit] Trivia
- In the mid 1940s, author J. R. R. Tolkien wrote an abandoned novel called The Notion Club Papers, which is an unfinished time/dream/travel story. In the novel, people from the early 21st Century find a lost document, written in the 1980s and containing a reference to an enormous storm that happened in 1987.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Michael Fish and the 1987 Storm (HTML). BBC Weather. www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on February 20, 2007.
- ^ "UK storm payout 'may hit £350m'", news.bbc.co.uk, BBC, 2007-02-20. Retrieved on February 20, 2007. (in English) “The "great storm" of 1987, which cost the industry £2bn, was the second most expensive.”
