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The great storm of October 1987


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Posted
  • Location: South Pole
  • Location: South Pole
I think he was famously 'told off' by Bill Giles for stealing his wink at the end of the forecast, so he stopped doing it!

Of course, Michael Buerk always used to wink at the end of a newscast didn't he. Don't think Bill Giles came after him, though.

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Posted
  • Location: southgate, north london
  • Location: southgate, north london

I had a paper round and it was windy but the worst must have missed us cos I finished it ok! . But the thing I most remember was coming back and turning on breakfast news on the BBC and they must have set up an emergency studio and Nicholas Witchell was the only one around giving the latest situation so I knew then it was pretty serious. I had radio 1 on later and the guy on at the time - Simon Mayo perhaps- was asking live on air for the DJ who should have been on previously to phone in and tell them he was ok because he hadnt turned up. I assume he was ok!!

I think he was famously 'told off' by Bill Giles for stealing his wink at the end of the forecast, so he stopped doing it!

Has the 'wink' been trademarked then? I think Anne Robinson should be told! :rolleyes:

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Posted
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks

Perhaps John Holmes would be good enough if he comes across this thread to reminisce and confirm that the pencil isobar scrawling is how they used to draw the charts back then.

confirmed, the 'scawl' as you call it is still used as the basic surface analysis in all Met offices, in the UK and the rest of the world.

Many charts are now computer analysed but most main/principal offices, will still do it that way, and the upper air charts as well.

The Fax charts you see are the senior forecasters version of what he/she believes the surface chart will look like.

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Posted
  • Location: Birmingham U.K.
  • Location: Birmingham U.K.

Afternoon, all. Long time no see - apologies: work related! Hope you're all well.

From the Telegraph online today;

'' It was this belief that led Michael Fish to declare to viewers: “Earlier on today apparently a woman rang the BBC and said she’d heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well if you are watching, don’t worry, there isn’t.” ''

However, the BBC reckon they've got ''The Wrong Man'' here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7042220.stm

Hope the link works.

Kind regards,

Mike.

Edited by Winston
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Posted
  • Location: Kilmarnock, Scotland
  • Location: Kilmarnock, Scotland

I dont really remember this storm - was living near Dunfermline at the time. However, around about this time I do recall our chimney was blown off in a strong gale... could this have been the same event? I'm not sure how strong or far North the winds reached.

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Posted
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)

Superb, that must finally put that popular misnomer to bed - and from the mouth of the man himself! Thanks to all concerned.

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Posted
  • Location: Barnehurst nr Bexleyheath, Kent
  • Location: Barnehurst nr Bexleyheath, Kent

I was 9, nearly 10 (you remember how age was important back then) and I just remember my mum and dads bedroom window slamming shut waking me up. I had no idea what was happening, except a horrendous noise outside, with all sorts of objects blowing down the road and tiles from the roof crashing to the ground. I also remember when the street lights went out and everything was in total darkness - but strangely enough, during that time, I remember there being what can only be described as lightning every now and again - of course I know now it was no doubt live power cables sparks lighting the night sky up.

The next morning was strange. We still had no power, and I remember my mum and dad being totally in shock at what had taken place - because there was no power, no way of knowing what had happened. I can see my mum now f-ing and b-ing that there were no batteries in the house to power the battery radio! I also remember once the phone lines were up and running again, my mum ringing my nan to make sure she was Ok - and my nan, who lived through the blitz quoting she thought it was the 'end of the world' And of course there was no school - due to the fact the infant school huts were destroyed.

One thing this 20th anniversary has made me realise is just how out of context Michael Fish's infamous weather forecast was taken and how Mr Fish kind of famously 'took the blame' for the whole lack of met office severe weather warnings.

Until today, I could have sworn I remember watching Michael Fish the night before laughing about a woman from Wales saying there was a hurricane on the way and saying there wasnt. When in fact, I was at school during the lunch time weather report Mr Fish gave - a clear case (on my part) of the media distorting the truth - and misleading the general public.

No doubt I have recollections of watching the infamous weather report in the News the evening after the storm - but certainly not the evening before the storm!

Edited by snow raven
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Posted
  • Location: Norton, Stockton-on-Tees
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and cold in winter, warm and sunny in summer
  • Location: Norton, Stockton-on-Tees

Up in Scotland we were lucky enough to escape the worst of the winds but I still remember watching the news on TVam the following morning and seeing the devestation.

It was still windy up near us and at my school the playing fields were at the top of a 10 foot embankment that, even on calm days, had a strong breeze blowing up! So on that day my friends and I stood at the top of this embankment with our jackets held up like Batman's wings (you know what I mean) and attempted to 'glide' down the hill.

Then of course came the joke about Sevenoaks changing it's name!

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Posted
  • Location: Warminster, Wiltshire
  • Location: Warminster, Wiltshire

It's fascinating to read everyone's account of that day(s) so thank you for sharing :o .

Despite living just over 40 miles (as the crow flies) from the South coast I can recall nothing of the storm except for what was on the tv news. Having spoken with my parents they have no memories either. Maybe my area was sheltered from the worst by the funneling effect of Salisbury Plain? I really don't know!

I have more memories of a storm in (January?) 1991 which was blowing roof tiles off my school building, one of which landed about 5 metres from a mate and myself!

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Posted
  • Location: Upminster, Essex
  • Location: Upminster, Essex

I was not even a year old when the storm struck so obviously to young to remember it, but I see footage of it on tv and my parents used to tell me about their memories of it. They woke about 3.30am to sound like a constant howling warewolf, my dad went downstairs to see what it was and noticed our double-glazed windows bending in with every gust, than saw our garden connifers bending over so far that the tops where touching the ground. My mum came down about 5 minutes later, slightly worried about what was going on! Than as she entered the kitchen my dad said, "There's a hell of a wind getting up out there dear, and our sun umbrella is spinning down the garden like a ballet dancer, so I'm just popping outside to put it in the garage!" Obviously worried that it could crash through the window, little did he know what he was stepping out into, he grabed the umbrella and fought with it whilst trying not to take off! He came back in and said to my mum "My word that's a storm and a half, can't ever recall seeing wind like this before!" My mum replied "Me neither, this is unushal I must say, I hope it don't wake the kids up they'll get scared!" Me and my older brother both slept through it, and after that my parents retreated back to bed and slept through most of the rest of it. My dad woke up about 3 hours later to get ready for work by which time the winds had died but it was still quite blowy, switched on the tv and the news images started comming in and the advice was don't bother trying to get to work, guess what? he tryed to go to work. A journey that normally only took 45minutes took him nearly 4 hours, when he got to work there was nobody there, and bout 15minutes after arriving thought to hell with this and made the slow journey home again!

I found it ammusing how on the evening news that day, Michael Buerk turned round to Iain Mackascol (not sure I've spelt that right!?) and fired the words at him "Fat lot of good you lot where last night!" To which Iain just stood there in the weather centre with a very apologetic look on his face and gave the best excuses he could!

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Posted
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks

I found it amusing how on the evening news that day, Michael Buerk turned round to Iain Macaskill (not sure I've spelt that right!?) and fired the words at him "Fat lot of good you lot where last night!" To which Iain just stood there in the weather centre with a very apologetic look on his face and gave the best excuses he could!

that was on Breakfast and Ian was still on duty some 12 hours after he had started his night duty. He was still there after 18 hours as no one was able to get in until later in the day.

Your account would be ever so much more interesting if you told us where you live?

thanks

Edited by johnholmes
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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
I have more memories of a storm in (January?) 1991 which was blowing roof tiles off my school building, one of which landed about 5 metres from a mate and myself!

Maybe this one?

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

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...
Posted
  • Location: Upminster, Essex
  • Location: Upminster, Essex

I don't get why it highlights the beaufort scale at violent storm 11 with winds of upto 72mph, correct me if I'm wrong but according to the timeline map shown below it, the winds were much higher than this? i.e; 94mph London, 134mph Normandy! :lol:

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Posted
  • Location: Shirley, Croydon, Greater London
  • Location: Shirley, Croydon, Greater London

I remember the great storm very well. I was 22 yrs old back then and woke up to terrific gushing winds. I went outside as my car alarm was activated and everywhere around me in South London was pitch black. I turned on the battery powered radio and tuned into Capital Radio. They were giving out emergency messages and explaining what was going on.

When it was first light, oh my God was heard by many. So many trees were down and other items blown down/off. It was like a bomb had gone off and left so much devastation.

I too remember what Michael Fish said and to think to this day he is still maintaining his innocence!!! At least it made him very famous !!

Edited by yamkin
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Posted
  • Location: Great wakering
  • Location: Great wakering

I remember this storm well.

I recall going into my mum and dad and waking mum up and telling her there was a For Sale board going down the road and mum thinking I was sleepwalking told me to go back to bed and off I trotted.

A little while later I went back in and told her there was a tree going down the road, this time dad was awake and told mum to have a look to see what was going on outside. Her response was "there's a tree going down the road".

When I got up the next morning it was an awful sight, there was alot of debris and so many tree's down and even now some of the roads still look bare where they weren't replaced.

This event will stick in my mind for a long time to come.

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Posted
  • Location: South Pole
  • Location: South Pole

If you go right to the end of this newscast, there's an extraordinary comment by Ian McCaskill on why the London Ambulance Service wasn't informed. "Because they didn't ask us to". Christ, Ian.

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Posted
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks

nope; Met only warn those who wish to be warned, or those told to be on the list by a government department, in those days they chose not to be on the list.

money also played a part. to be on the list you had to pay, nuff said about the NHS.

Edited by johnholmes
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Posted
  • Location: South Pole
  • Location: South Pole
nope; Met only warn those who wish to be warned, or those told to be on the list by a government department, in those days they chose not to be on the list.

money also played a part. to be on the list you had to pay, nuff said about the NHS.

Thank you, John.

What a shambles. I suspect most people who listened to that Michael Buerk interview would have thought the same unfortunately.

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  • 3 years later...

Anyone know about a map with the strongest gusts reached in the UK during that storm???

Here are some of the strongest gusts observed over western France in the night of the 15th to the 16th of october 1987:

FINISTERE [western brittany]:

216km/h pointe du Raz [average windvspeed: 172.8 but anemometer broke because of the strong winds right after midnight]

198km/h pointe de Penmarch [average wind speed 176.4km/h]

187km/h Quimper [144kmh average wind speed].

187km/h a Camaret sur mer

176km/h a Ouessant [115km/h]

173km/h a l'Ile de Batz [162km/h!].

169km/h a Brignogan [122km/h].

162km/h a Lanveoc [104km/h.

162km/h a Rostrenen

148km/h a Brest [89km/h].

140km/h a Landivisiau [68km/h].

MORBIHAN:

166km/h a Lorient

162km/h a Belle Ile.

148km/h a Ploermel.

122km/h a Pontivy

122km/h a Vannes

COTES D'ARMOR:

176km/h a Saint Brieux

172km/h a Brehat.

ILLE ET VILAINE:

173km/h a la pointe du grouin.

151km/h a Dinard.

137km/h a Dinard.

130km/h a Louvigne du desert.

122km/h a Bonnemain.

MANCHE:

216km/h a Granville.

194km/h a Barfleur, average of 129.5km/h.

198km/h a Carteret.

162km/h a Gatteville.

148km/h a Cherbourg , vent moyen 85km/h.

143km/h au Cap de la Hague, but anemometer was broken at the beginning of the storm, under a what was probably a huge gust...

CALVADOS:

162km/h a Port en Bessin

140km/h a Deauville.

140km/h a Caen.

SEINE MARITIME:

180km/h au Cap de la Heve.

130km/h a Rouen.

GRAND OUEST:

166km/h a Boulogne.

144km/h a l'ile d'Oleron.

144km/h a Saint Sauveur [ile d'Yeu]

130km/h au Touquet.

122km/h a Biarritz.

122km/h a Evreux.

119km/h a Saint Nazaire.

115km/h a Nantes.

115km/h a Alencon

115km/h a Abbeville.

112km/h a Melun.

112km/h a La Roche sur Yon.

108km/h a Villacoublay

104km/h a Tours

101km/h a Bretigny

101km/h au Mans.

101km/h a Niort.

101km/h a Angers.

101km/h a Trappes

97km/h a Chartres.

Important facts about these values and the storm over the channel:

-unfortunately, anemometers broke in some of the places where the winds were the strongest [Cap de la Hague and Pointe du Raz].

-The storm reached its strongest in the south west of france in the evening, and right at the same time, conditions were extremely calm over Brittany, with a very light breeze and a clear sky after a very rainy day. No one had any idea of what was going to happen only a few hours after.

-The winds weren't that strong before the low's arrival just west of Brittany. But after the low moved on towards the channel, winds picked up extremely quickly, sometimes rising from 4bft to 10 bft in just a few minutes, and from 4bft to well over 12bft in just 1 or 2 hours.

-The low developped very quickly over the Gascogne gulf. This explains why the winds were so strong, and as the diameter of the low pressure area was very small, most of coastal areas were affected by winds coming from the sea at one point or another, and inland areas saw much stronger gusts than they usually do in storms. Indeed, the strongest winds in Ouessant [island just west of northern Brittany] were from the north [just like in Cornwall], and at the same moment, the wind was also at its strongest at the Pointe du Raz [south west of Brittany], and it was from the west. Finally, the eastern places of Brittany's southern coast were being hit by winds coming from SSW.

-The strongest winds here were observed between 11pm on the 15th and 5am on the 16th [french time, so take away 1h for british time].

-The lowest sea level pressure was recorded at Ouessant around midnight, with just 949hpa...

-The storm was moving towards the north east at an incredible speed: as much as 110km/h!

-Even more surprising than the gusts were the average wind speeds. Indeed, the difference between the highest gusts and the average wind over 10 minutes is very small: less than 20km/h a Penmarch [the highest gust was reached a little while after the worst of the storm in the area], and just 11km/h a the island of Batz just off the north coast of Brittany. This probably means that some places never went under 150km/h over a period of 10 minutes [at least], possibly even not below 160km/h since the strongest winds weren't recorded at pointe du Raz. Oh yeah, and an average wind of 175km/h over 10 minutes is what you'd expect during a category 3 hurricane...

-The strong winds persisted for at least 3 hours and usually for around 5 hours, so the storm lifted a huge storm surge and a huge swell. The storm surge reached as much as 3 meters on Britanny's southern coast, ad the swell reached 16 meters near Belle Ile and near Ouessant.

No need to say the damage on France's coast was huge, but it has to be said that the coastal areas were lucky: the tides this day were very low, and only a week after the 16th, were the high autumn tides...

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Posted
  • Location: Darlington
  • Weather Preferences: Warm dry summers
  • Location: Darlington
Posted · Hidden by Summer Sun, June 19, 2011 - No reason given
Hidden by Summer Sun, June 19, 2011 - No reason given

Can i ask why you have dug up a topic which hasn't had any reply's for almost 4 years

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  • 5 months later...
Posted
  • Location: The North Kent countryside
  • Weather Preferences: Hot summers, snowy winters and thunderstorms!
  • Location: The North Kent countryside

I know this is possibly supposed to go in the Storm Enthusiasts group, but seeing with the current Northern storm, I thought here might be more appropriate.

Do you remember the 1987 storm, how was it for you?

Tell, tell :)

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