The tale of the storm in 87

19th Feb 2022

We have just had a very windy spell of weather here in the UK. Storm Eunice was pretty severe by UK standards, a number of trees were blown over and there was a fair amount of structural damage too.

This storm was pretty severe, but it reminded me of the worst storm I have ever experienced in October 1987 when the South East of the UK was hit with 'hurricane force winds' of up to 134 mph.

This storm was all the more devastating because people were completely unprepared for it. The previous days weather forecast read by Michael Fish said that there was nothing to worry about!

Here is a clip of the infamous weather forecast from that evening.

I remember that when the storm struck I was in bed and the howling wind woke me up. I had never heard anything like it before, I got up out of bed and looked out of the window and could see the tree in our garden had blown over, thankfully without causing any damage. After I saw that I went downstairs and opened the back door and stepped outside in my pyjamas. I just wanted to feel how strong the wind was, I think I stayed outside for about a minute, with the storm swirling around me.

The following morning I got myself ready and went to school as usual but when I got there the school was not open. There had been a fair amount of damage done and school was cancelled.

Yipee, I thought to myself, no school today. I walked back home via the park and saw that two of the large trees had fallen over there as well, it really was a fierce storm!

I can't remember what I did the rest of the day, but it must have been better than going to school.

The Storm is estimated to have felled up to 15 million trees across the country with one of the worst hit places being 'Sevenoaks' in kent, which lost six of its seven oak trees overnight.

Here is a clip of the news report the following day, it was the worst storm that the UK had experienced in nearly 300 years.

Since 'The Great Storm of 87' a lot of money has been invested in technology to help weather forecasts become more accurate, but they still get things wrong from time to time and even with all that technology it is difficult to accurately predict the weather more than a few days in advance.

Storm Eunice may have been severe, but nothing compared to the storm of 87.

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Article is my own

Videos: YouTube

Lead image courtesy of Pixabay