30th Anniversary of the Great Storm of 1987 today

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

30 years ago today the Great storm of 1987 hit southern England and by the 16th December many woke to a changed landscape. About 15 million trees were destroyed.

www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/learn-about-the-weather/weather-phenomena/case-studies/great-storm

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

The full infamous Michael Fish forecast

[Hassled]

That makes me feel very very old. I remember it so clearly - was in London, awake in the night anyway with baby DC1, and it sounded like the apocalypse outside. The next day was weird - so many trees etc down and hardly any people around.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

And bbc report the following day

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I was out of the country and missed it. I was so jealous to hear from my friends what had happened!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

And for a giggle

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

above link is Buerk saying to McCaskill saying they were a fat lot of good.

[Ideserveaholiday]

I was staying with my parents for a visit and came back to my garage broken in two. My neighbour watched the whole thing and said it was terrifying but I think I got off lightly.

[HerSymphonyAndSong]

This is wonderfully east Anglian - memory of the great storm audioboom.com/posts/2773676-brian-from-melton-and-nick-pandolfi-greatstorm

[SomedayMyPrinceWillCome]

My primary school class (now would be Yr3) were meant to be going on a trip to a wood they day after the storm. Reader, we did not go...!

[LoniceraJaponica]

This evokes a sad memory for me. My family all live in the south of England. We lived in Leeds and missed the storm. My parents had been away in Ross-on-Wye for a short break and also missed the storm. On hearing the news the next morning I rang where they were staying to ask my mum not to go home, but I had missed them.

My dad was coming to visit us in Leeds and my mum somehow managed to get home. We had a lovely weekend and took my dad to Harry Ramsden's - something he had always wanted to do.

He went home on the Sunday and started clearing up the devastation in the garden the next day. The exertion brought on his second heart attack from which he subsequently died.

To this day, I feel so glad we took him to Harry Ramsden's that weekend.

[insancerre]

Dh and I slept through it
We were living in Bucks, just outside wendover

I didn't hear a thing. I walked to work and wondered why all the trees were knocked down

[Coffeetasteslikeshit]

I remember going to school the next day and being sent home because hardly anyone had made it in, and on the way home I got blown across the road. Luckily there were no cars!

[Finola1step]

I remember waking up at about 4am, hearing the wind but then going back to sleep. Waking up the next morning to many trees down in our road, no school and no TV except BBC1.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

I slept through it as well. Couldn't believe the chaos when I went to work in the morning.

[AlbusPercival]

I was 6 weeks old. My mama was terrified

[EnidNextDoor]

I always remember it as the great storm in which no one died. I have seen it written in articles like that too but only today I found out that 18 people actually died. I had absolutely no idea.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

it's fortunate that it did take place at night. The Burns day storm in 1990 killed 97 people.

Lonicera, that's very sad. I'm sorry.

[LoniceraJaponica]

Thank you Kitten. I remember the Burns night storm. I was working in Wakefield when we had a particularly strong gust of wind that sounded like the whole building had been hit. I had a long drive home because it had blown a lorry over on the road. It also blew our garden fence down (it needed replacing anyway).

[Oncewaswho]

I'm sorry Lonicera

I slept through it in West London. We didn't even lose power. I remember waking up to the voice on the clock radio saying something about a "state of emergency across London". I didn't even see any damage on my drive of several miles to work, it was very localised patches of damage it seemed.

[Borntoflyinfirst]

I was 13 and I slept through it in Surrey. Woke up to find a tree across our garden. Didn’t go to school. I was very disappointed as we were supposed to be making bread that day! Not sure why I didn’t just do it at home!

[Ereshkigal]

Lonicera

[Ereshkigal]

It was intense where I was, as was the 1990 storm.

[Gazelda]

It was awful! I had an appt the next day with a consultant I’d been waiting for months for. I needed to get into London but rail lines were blocked, roads shut. I moved heaven and earth to get to the appt, but the consultant didn’t manage to get in. It was months before I got a rearranged appt.