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The Great Storm Of 25th January 1990


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I'd been to a conference in London. Walking back to Euston for the Crewe train. I was bemused by the arm of a tower crane spinning! At the station it was chaos, with no main line trains running because the wires were down. After hanging about for a couple of hours, the tannoy unexpectedly announced a special for West Coast line passengers was going  run from St Pancras. A phalanx of  desperate would-be travellers surged along the Euston Road for the Midland line terminus. The well-overloaded special left at 8.53pm, reaching Bedford at 10.14, reversing to Bletchley to join the WCML at Bletchley by 11.08 and disgorging me at Crewe one minute before 2.00pm. As  the class 87 (87207) braved the night towards Carlisle, British Rail laid on a special for Chester, from which we disembarked at 2.54am. Full marks to BR that night for their efforts. That was an adventure. Not so yesterday (27.11.19) 30 years on - and 30 years older - when the wires were down north of Preston, causing me to have to abandon a much-anticipated meeting and event in Edinburgh.   Rod. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: weston-super-mare, UK
  • Location: weston-super-mare, UK

I was only five at the time, and remember being school being closed. The roof of the school did get blown off, and sadly a boy in my class did get injured by falling debris causing some brain damage and PTSD (I did not know this until many years later, and all I remember was he had some time off school, had some behavioural problems). I left that school a couple of years later, but I remember him and his family did appear in local media some years afterwards (this was in Birmingham).

I think this is one of my earliest memories re: weather! 

Edited by nn2013
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Posted
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl
  • Weather Preferences: obviously snow!
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl

my Nan's 65th b'day! she will be 95 next 25th Jan!

and here is chart for it, no need for winter clothing! fantasy of course

cfs-0-1170.png?00

Edited by I remember Atlantic 252
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  • 1 month later...
Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the Burns Day gale of 1990. I had only just moved to Blackpool and was advised by colleagues to go and see the high tide at lunchtime that day. The first picture shows the scene at Bispham, just north of Blackpool, and the second shows the devastating effects of the sea on the shelters on the seafront at Cleveleys later that afternoon.

 

193866543_storm25190(1).thumb.jpg.ad69049633ba52c99bed64e21bb64f15.jpgstorm25190 (2).jpg

Edited by A Face like Thunder
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  • 3 weeks later...

Oh I remember this storm tragically all too well. I was 14, I remember sitting in the school coach waiting to go home, it was swaying away. No sign of my dad when I returned home from school, my Mum and older sister returned from work. Then a few hours later that knock on the door with 2 police officers stood there. My Dad had been travelling home from work as a refuse collector for Wycombe District Council when a tree came down on to his car, killed outright. Edward John Robinson 24/05/1945 - 25/01/1990 

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  • 11 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire
On 24/01/2020 at 09:55, A Face like Thunder said:

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the Burns Day gale of 1990. I had only just moved to Blackpool and was advised by colleagues to go and see the high tide at lunchtime that day. The first picture shows the scene at Bispham, just north of Blackpool, and the second shows the devastating effects of the sea on the shelters on the seafront at Cleveleys later that afternoon.

 

193866543_storm25190(1).thumb.jpg.ad69049633ba52c99bed64e21bb64f15.jpgstorm25190 (2).jpg

Another year but I still remember it as if it were yesterday.

My sympathies to Sooziegirl (see above) on the anniversary of the tragic loss of her dad. RIP Edward.

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  • 11 months later...
Posted
  • Location: East Lothian
  • Weather Preferences: Not too hot, excitement of snow, a hoolie
  • Location: East Lothian

Highest gust speeds: Met Office
Aberporth 93 knots (107 mph)
Gwennap Head 93 knots (107 mph)
Culdrose 89 knots (103 mph)
Herstmonceux 85 knots (98 mph)

Attached synoptic chart from the day

0125burnsStorm.png

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Posted
  • Location: Cheshire
  • Location: Cheshire

My wife has family living near Gwennap Head, although they were not there in 1990. I've visited the place often enough but usually on a summer's day. I can only imagine what it must have been like on 25th Jan 1990. I had a colleague at work in Blackpool who always went to and from work on a push bike, a 20 mile round trip. On 25th Jan 1990, we wondered whether he would abandon the bike for the day, the gale force wind blowing in his face on the journey to work. But no, he made it to work although 30 mins later than normal and a little bit red-faced and sweaty. The journey home must have been bliss!

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

Did the storm bring heavy snow as well?

Answered myself exactly a year ago... brought snow on NW flank!

Edited by damianslaw
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  • 11 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Stoke Gifford, nr Bristol, SGlos
  • Location: Stoke Gifford, nr Bristol, SGlos

On this day 33 years ago the Burns’ Day celebrations of 1990 were disrupted by one of the strongest windstorms to hit Europe on record.

The result of an intense depression moving across southern Scotland, heavy winds and severe gales battered Scotland and spread into England and Wales before moving to continental Europe.

Although there were no official storm names given at the time, it has since been known as Cyclone Daria.

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Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)

Still hazily remember the day. Was 14 years old living in Kent, remember being sent home early from school, walking into town from the school to catch the bus home and worrying about being hit by flying debris, flying fences etc. Then the bus home was entertaining, double decker bus, top deck I was sat and bus was swaying alarmingly with the increasing gusts.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
On 25/01/2022 at 16:02, damianslaw said:

Did the storm bring heavy snow as well?

Answered myself exactly a year ago... brought snow on NW flank!

 

I'm wondering if you might be confusing the storm on the 25th with the subsequent secondary low on the night of the 27th/28th.  Heavy snow fell widely on the NW flank of that second system, and on the morning of the 28th, snow depths included 13cm at Leeming (North Yorkshire), 8cm at Durham and 7cm at Hazelrigg near Lancaster.  

The system on the 25th did indeed bring a spell of heavy snow to parts of the north, but at low levels it generally turned to rain, initiating a thaw in Scotland (where a coldish polar maritime westerly on the 24th had delivered a widespread snow cover).

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Posted
  • Location: Longden, Shropshire
  • Location: Longden, Shropshire
7 hours ago, Nick F said:

Still hazily remember the day. Was 14 years old living in Kent, remember being sent home early from school, walking into town from the school to catch the bus home and worrying about being hit by flying debris, flying fences etc. Then the bus home was entertaining, double decker bus, top deck I was sat and bus was swaying alarmingly with the increasing gusts.

We never got sent home from school, in fact we were made to do outdoor PE, albeit we were soon sent back inside lol!!

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Posted
  • Location: SE London
  • Location: SE London

28 years old and was driving to work 80 miles away on M11/M25/A1M I will never forget seeing a flat bed lorry with a full load of wooden pallets loaded on it, going along the M25 I was behind it and watching the pallets moving around on the back. they were strapped down but still looked precarious. then all of a sudden a pallet shot off the top of the stack and headed straight to me. i couldn't escape as cars were either side of me. 

imagine the relief as i watched the pallet go over me from my sunroof. looked in my rear view mirror and saw it smash to pieces on the carriageway. fortunately nothing was hit.

but unfortunately my journey home was not so good. on the M25 again, ahead of me was a motorcyclist, we were doing about 80 and he was possibly faster. doing a curve in the motorway he hit a side wind. sent him straight into the central reservation 😮 

goodness knows how he survived it, but when i attended him, he could stand up and was more upset with his smashed up bike 

 

Edited by MAF
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  • 11 months later...
Posted
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: cold and snowy. Summer: hot and sunny
  • Location: Home: Chingford, London (NE). Work: London (C)
WWW.BBC.CO.UK

Storms Isha and Jocelyn battered the UK this week, but improvements in forecasting and warning systems mean the impacts have not been as great the Burns Day storm 34 years ago.

 

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