Great Storm 15/16 Oct 1987

[stewfox]

I remember as a student at Portsmouth Poly actually get quite scared our windows would blow in

Going to lessons next day you could see all the trees that had blown down. Portsmouth got it fairly bad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/16/newsid_2533000/2533219.stm

[Jimmyh]

I remember it well. I was in my second year at school. The school got shut down just before half term. We lived high up in riddlesdown. About 450 abover sea level. The first thing I remember was being woken by my dad making sure everything was secure as this was the early part of the wind about 2 am. The trees were literally going sideways. I watched the whole of London lights go out as the power cuts hit. 

The thing is I opened the window to listen and could not believe how warm t was. 

Next morning pOwer was off and the trees were down. Not a road near us had been spared. We all got saws out and tried to start clearing our road and others. 

Power didn't come back till lunchtime and we took a drive out the next day to a place called oaks park and it had been utterly devastated by the winds.

The only other time we lost power and we lost telephones was the burns day storm in Jan 1990. 

This storm fuelled my passion in meteorology. It is interesting to me that this had sting jet in middle of it and to record 94 miles an hour in central London  is still breathtaking really. 

[jy]

Yes,not fun,i lived at over 700ft in Kent at that time,very scary,our village was cut off for 7 days,i pushed up the loft hatch to see just clouds lol.As luck would have it the tradesmen couldn't leave the village so it was quickly secured.It was eerie,seeing just emptiness where once there were masses of trees,Sevenoaks became one oak overnight,the Weald got devastated.

Like lots of rural villages,there are folk in the big expensive houses,who rarely spoke to anybody other than fellow rich,however during the crisis they were out and about,sandwiches,tots of scotch ect,telling us chainsaw guys how wonderfully well we were doing ect,soon as the roads were clear they were never seen again lol

[Ross Andrew Hemphill]

This storm took place 12 years before I was born, but boy I wish I was alive to witness it! Storms like this one are what inspires me to become a meteorologist, truly spectacular weather at its best and worst simultaneously.

[stewfox]

I think there has only been two other occasions in my life that I have truly got frighten re the weather and both of those were in USA a snow storm in the Rockies and hail storm in Oregon. 

When you watch 12 inches of snow fall  from a window in a heated house , no fear of course, unless you include missing work the next day 

 

Edited October 16, 2016 by stewfox

[Walsall Wood Snow]

I was only 2 at the time, so I don't remember this event. However I have a feeling this was very much a southern England event and the effects here deep in the Midlands would have been much moderated and was maybe here nothing particularly special. I've never heard people round here refer to it for example. Whereas in documentaries or archival news reports etc, there does seem to be a focus on this events effects in the far south and any effects in the Midlands northwards isn't even mentioned, which leads me to believe these areas didn't get the brunt of it. Anyway for those areas that were affected this was undoubtedly a spectacular and even frightening event. So much so that even nearly 30 years later it is regarded as one of the most memorable events in British weather history.

[jy]

Quote

 

Having gone through it personally in Kent my split would be Frightening 85%....Spectacular the other 15....when the back roof of the house is gone and you are listening to this roaring monster attempting to lift your entire roof off I can tell you its an instant cure for constipation lol

[4wd]

My parents were returning from a coach trip to Italy and the ferry had to sit at Dover all night as it was too dangerous to dock.
It was relatively sheltered on the boat and that was stable enough, but the tall harbour lamp posts were catching the full blast and swayed alarmingly to almost 45 degrees at times.

[philglossop]

I was 13. In the back garden of my parents was a very old half dead first tree which did come down. Luckily all it took with it was our back fence.

 

As bad as 1987 was, January 1990 was much worse here in Plymouth especially as that hit in the morning. In fact most of December 1989/January 1990 was building up to that storm.

[knocker]

46 minutes ago, philglossop said:

I was 13. In the back garden of my parents was a very old half dead first tree which did come down. Luckily all it took with it was our back fence.

 

As bad as 1987 was, January 1990 was much worse here in Plymouth especially as that hit in the morning. In fact most of December 1989/January 1990 was building up to that storm.

Yes indeed. I was working in 1987 and it was bit tricky trying to launch the midnight sounding with the not user friendly Mark 111 radiosonde. Not I hasten to add not as tricky as in winds gusting 90 knots from the deck of a Weather Ship. (Everyone swing the lamps)

I was working for the Burns Day storm as well when we had a recorded gust of 83kts and a mean of 52.

Edited October 17, 2016 by knocker

[Dami]

I slept though it, the first I knew of it was a friends dad who was a fireman had phoned to tell us not to go out. Turned out school was closed as the wind how blown the gym roof in.

We didn't get much damage, and although we lived maybe 4 miles from the sea, the only thing that happened was the lost of plant pot but with the plant neatly placed where the pot should of been. 

[stainesbloke]

I'll never forget this storm. Extremely exciting but also terrifying at the same time. Remember waking up needing the loo, it was around half past midnight. There was a really loud noise outside and I was very groggy initially but it took me ages to get the large window open to see what was going on. The wind was a S'ly at that point and was hitting the window directly, hence the difficulty opening it. When I did, the wind was crazy. There were 3 big lime trees near to the house and the middle one had lost a massive branch which had just missed us. Well that was it; I couldn't sleep after that and was running from window to window watching the storm for the rest of the night. There were flashes, wierd noises and the noise of the wind was the loudest I'd ever heard. At one point I saw a full sized dustbin fly past down the road about 3m high. Towards morning the worst of the storm arrived. There was an old conker tree on the other side of the road and I was watching as a boy doing a paper round sheltered underneath. A huge gust came, toppled the tree and I thought the paper boy was no more! Luckily, he clambered out from some branches and ran off. Then more huge gusts came, the noise was incredible and lots of trees were being damaged severely. After that my Mum and brother got up and we tried turning on the tv: no signal at all which was quite frightening. I got ready for college and eventually set off on my bicycle for the 6 mile journey through the western outskirts of London. The journey took me nearly 3 hours. I will never forget the complete devastation of that morning. Every single street had trees lying across it, crushed cars, or roofs damaged. All the bus shelters had blown in and there was smashed glass everywhere. Finally got to college to find some teachers milling around sending everyone back home, as there was so much damage and big trees down. Took me ages to get home as I got a puncture from all the glass!

Edited November 25, 2016 by stainesbloke

[MarkW]

As Walsall Wood Snow says, this didn't really hit the Midlands that much. I was 15, living in Tipton. I remember the news in the morning, vaguely. I must have taken notice of it;  after school , I travelled down to Swansea to see a girl I had met during the Summer on holiday - and was looking out for damage. The Birmingham New Street to Cardiff train passed through Worcesteshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire  and Gwent en route to Glamorgan. I only saw a handful of trees that were down. The S/West Mids and Wales also got off lightly. 

 

However, I know people in London (I worked with) and they've told me of the destruction in the Wimbledon, Roehampton and New Malden areas. One former work colleague found her back garden shed in the street at the front of her house, surrounded by downed trees.