When Britain was hit by a hurricane - 15th October 1987
There aren't that many weather legends in Britain, but one in particular will never be forgotten by most of those who experienced it. On the 15th October 1987, a woman rang the BBC concerned that a hurricane was on the way. Her suggestion was casually dismissed by the weather presenter at the time, Michael Fish, who was forever reminded of his faux pas, as that very night, a violent extratropical cyclone occurred, with hurricane force winds.
'The Great Storm' brought devastation, felling trees and ripping pieces off buildings. There were eighteen fatalities in the southern half of the country. The weather forecasters had simply failed to predict a storm of such severity, although an earlier more accurate forecast had been downgraded in later projections. As a result of this misinformation, major changes were introduced to forecasting procedures, including computer models, and enhanced training of forecasters.
An estimated 15 million trees were lost during the storm. They blocked roads and railways, damaged vehicles when they fell on them, and left extensive structural damage, particularly to windows, fences, rooves and chimneys. The Kent town of Sevenoaks lost six of the historic oaks that gave it its name.
Several hundred thousand people were left without power, which was not restored fully until more than two weeks later. On the morning of the 16th October, the day after the storm, BBC’s largest broadcasting site, Lime Grove Studios in White City, was ironically not able to function itself due to a power failure.
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