106-707: October Storm may refer to: Great storm of 1987 , or the Great October Storm, which struck the United Kingdom and France Lake Storm Aphid , which in October 2006 struck Buffalo, New York, and surrounding areas See also [ edit ] St. Jude storm , sometimes called the Oktoberstormen 2013 (October Storm 2013) in Danish Typhoon Songda (2016) ,
212-531: A 25 kilometres (16 mi) stretch of light steel netting called the Dover Barrage , which it was hoped would ensnare submerged submarines. After initial success, the Germans learned how to pass through the barrage, aided by the unreliability of British mines. On 31 January 1917, the Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare leading to dire Admiralty predictions that submarines would defeat Britain by November,
318-705: A hurricane had nothing to do with the UK; they referred to Florida, USA, and were linked to a news story immediately preceding the weather bulletin, but had been so widely repeated out of context that the British public remains convinced that he was referring to the approaching storm. According to Fish, the woman in question was actually a colleague's mother who was about to go on holiday in the Caribbean, and had called regarding Hurricane Floyd to see if it would be safe to travel. Fish went on to warn viewers that it would be "very windy" across
424-473: A major necessary source of weather report data. Following the storm, meteorologists at the University of Reading led by Professor Keith Browning developed the sting jet concept. During reanalysis of the storm they identified a mesoscale flow where the most damaging winds were shown to be emanating from the evaporating tip of the hooked cloud head on the southern flank of the cyclone. This cloud, hooked like
530-506: A more southerly track for the low pressure system, incorrectly indicating that the strongest winds would be confined to Northern and Central France. The French meteorological office used a different computer weather model to the British, and the French model proved more accurate in predicting the severity of the storm in the Channel. The French meteorological service did correctly predict and warn for
636-420: A period of lower wind speeds. During the first period, the wind direction was southerly. During the latter, it was south-westerly. Damage patterns in south-east England suggested that tornadoes accompanied the storm. In the UK, winds at Shoreham-by-Sea , Sussex reached 190 km/h; 120 mph (100 kn) before the anemometer failed. Many anemometers were reliant on mains power, and ceased recording as
742-509: A protected World Heritage Site coastline. The ship had been damaged and was en route to Portland Harbour . The English Channel, despite being a busy shipping lane, remains in part a haven for wildlife. Atlantic oceanic species are more common in the westernmost parts of the channel, particularly to the west of Start Point, Devon , but can sometimes be found further east towards Dorset and the Isle of Wight. Seal sightings are becoming more common along
848-486: A quarter of Brittany's forest was destroyed. The total damage was estimated at ₣ 23 billion. Météo France announced " une petite tempête en provenance des Açores " (a little storm coming in from the Azores), which reached Brittany's coast at about 18:00, later than expected. This depression caused little damage, with only 50 to 60 km/h (31 to 37 mph; 27 to 32 kn) winds. A much deeper depression hit Ushant on
954-563: A scorpion's tail, gives the wind region its name the "sting jet". It is sometimes claimed that this storm was the worst since the Great Storm of 1703 , but this has been challenged as ignoring storms outside the south-east of England. Storms of this strength regularly form over the North Atlantic, where they typically track to the north of Scotland. Storms of such a strength have a return period of 30 to 40 years. The unusual aspect of
1060-501: A wider area of the UK, with 1.5 million incidents of damage reported. The Burns' Day storm hit the United Kingdom in January 1990, less than three years later and with comparable intensity. The Great Storm of 1968 (Hurricane Low Q) had crossed Great Britain between the Pennines and Perthshire with the highest-ever recorded peak wind speeds (134 mph). The 1968 storm, for which no warning
1166-573: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Great storm of 1987 The great storm of 1987 was a violent extratropical cyclone that occurred on the night of 15–16 October, with hurricane-force winds causing casualties in the United Kingdom , France , and the Channel Islands as a severe depression in the Bay of Biscay moved northeast. Among
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#17330859267301272-456: The Battle of Britain featured German air attacks on Channel shipping and ports; despite these early successes against shipping the Germans did not win the air supremacy necessary for Operation Sealion , the projected cross-Channel invasion. The Channel subsequently became the stage for an intensive coastal war, featuring submarines, minesweepers , and Fast Attack Craft . The narrow waters of
1378-649: The Bay of Biscay , a depression was developing. The first gale warnings for sea areas in the English Channel were issued at 0630 UTC on 15 October and were followed, four hours later, by warnings of severe gales. At 1200 UTC on 15 October, the depression, which originated in the Bay of Biscay, was centred near 46° N, 9° W and its depth was 970 hPa (29 inHg). By 1800 UTC, it had moved north-east to about 47° N, 6° W, and deepened to 964 hPa (28.5 inHg). At 2235 UTC, winds of Force 10 were forecast. By midnight,
1484-670: The Beaufort scale of wind intensities, this storm had winds of hurricane force 12 (117 km/h [73 mph] or greater); as the term hurricane refers to tropical cyclones originating in the North Atlantic or North Pacific, the descriptor "great storm" has tended to be reserved for those storms in recent years reaching this velocity. Hurricanes have a very different wind profile and distribution from storms, and significantly higher precipitation levels. The storm made landfall in Cornwall , and tracked north-east towards Devon and then over
1590-610: The Burns' Day Storm of 1990. Peak wind velocities were in the early hours of the morning, which may have helped reduce the death toll. The storm hit the Isle of Wight at 02:00. Shanklin Pier , a central landmark in the seaside resort of Shanklin on the south-east coast of the island, was broken into three pieces as a result of mountainous waves in Sandown Bay that struck the structure. Plans to rebuild
1696-633: The Glorious Revolution of 1688, while the concentration of excellent harbours in the Western Channel on Britain's south coast made possible the largest amphibious invasion in history, the Normandy Landings in 1944. Channel naval battles include the Battle of the Downs (1639), Battle of Dover (1652), the Battle of Portland (1653) and the Battle of La Hougue (1692). In more peaceful times,
1802-581: The London Fire Brigade . Perhaps the most important warning was issued by the Met Office to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) at 0135 UTC, 16 October. It warned that the anticipated consequences of the storm were such that civil authorities might need to call on assistance from the military. A highest gust of 220 km/h; 137 mph (119 kn) is estimated from satellite data at Quimper , Brittany, with
1908-527: The Low Countries . The North Sea reaches much greater depths east of northern Britain. The Channel descends briefly to 180 m (590 ft) in the submerged valley of Hurd's Deep , 48 km (30 mi) west-northwest of Guernsey . There are several major islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast, and the Channel Islands , British Crown Dependencies off
2014-525: The MV Hengist , was driven ashore at Folkestone and the bulk carrier MV Sumnea capsized at Dover , Kent. The Radio Caroline ship MV Ross Revenge weathered the storm in the north sea, being one of the few ships to be in the North Sea during the storm; it being a radio ship, it also provided radio broadcasts to thousands while most stations were offline. The National Grid sustained heavy damage during
2120-682: The Midlands , going out to sea via The Wash . The strongest gusts, of up to 100 knots (190 km/h; 120 mph), were recorded along the south-eastern edge of the storm, hitting mainly Berkshire , Hampshire , Sussex , Essex , and Kent . The Royal Sovereign lighthouse 6 miles (9.7 km) off Eastbourne recorded the highest hourly-mean wind speed in the UK on its instruments at 75 kn (139 km/h; 86 mph). The counties of Dorset and Surrey were also heavily affected. The storm caused substantial damage over much of England, felling an estimated 15 million trees (including six of
2226-551: The National Trust , did not attempt complete clearing and replanting, realising that there was a unique opportunity to study the patterns of natural regeneration after such an event. A number of wild boar may have escaped from captivity during the storm, after enclosures were damaged by falling trees. These boar have since bred and established populations in woods across southern England. A more positive aspect could be found among some British gardeners; as Heather Angel wrote in
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#17330859267302332-570: The Neolithic front in southern Europe to the Mesolithic peoples of northern Europe." The Ferriby Boats , Hanson Log Boats and the later Dover Bronze Age Boat could carry a substantial cross-Channel cargo. Diodorus Siculus and Pliny both suggest trade between the rebel Celtic tribes of Armorica and Iron Age Britain flourished. In 55 BC Julius Caesar invaded, claiming that the Britons had aided
2438-487: The Norman Conquest beginning with the Battle of Hastings , while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants. In 1204, during the reign of King John , mainland Normandy was taken from England by France under Philip II , while insular Normandy (the Channel Islands ) remained under English control. In 1259, Henry III of England recognised the legality of French possession of mainland Normandy under
2544-800: The North Sea to the Western Atlantic via the Strait of Dover is of geologically recent origin, having formed late in the Pleistocene period. The English Channel first developed as an arm of the Atlantic Ocean during the Pliocene period (5.3-2.6 million years ago) as a result of differential tectonic uplift along pre-existing tectonic weaknesses during the Oligocene and Miocene periods. During this early period,
2650-548: The Royal Horticultural Society 's Journal : In some places this natural disaster has resulted in splendid vistas- views long since forgotten by some and never before seen by a whole new generation. Because of gaps left by fallen trees, visitors to Arundel Castle , the ancestral home of the Dukes of Norfolk, can now look out over the picturesque town... At the renowned woodland rhododendron garden at Leonardslee , Sussex,
2756-550: The Strait of Dover . It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 square kilometres (22,000 square nautical miles; 29,000 square miles). The Channel aided the United Kingdom in becoming a naval superpower, serving as a natural defence to halt attempted invasions, such as in the Napoleonic Wars and in the Second World War . The northern, English coast of
2862-628: The Treaty of Paris . His successors, however, often fought to regain control of mainland Normandy. With the rise of William the Conqueror , the North Sea and Channel began to lose some of their importance. The new order oriented most of England and Scandinavia's trade south, toward the Mediterranean and the Orient. Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy and other French possessions in 1801,
2968-484: The Treaty of Paris of 1259 , the surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to Salic Law which excludes inheritance through female heirs. French Normandy was occupied by English forces during the Hundred Years' War in 1346–1360 and again in 1415–1450. From the reign of Elizabeth I , English foreign policy concentrated on preventing invasion across
3074-631: The Veneti against him the previous year. He was more successful in 54 BC , but Britain was not fully established as part of the Roman Empire until Aulus Plautius 's 43 AD invasion . A brisk and regular trade began between ports in Roman Gaul and those in Britain. This traffic continued until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 410 AD, after which the early Anglo-Saxons left less clear historical records. In
3180-591: The Wall Street fall-out on Friday 16 October, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its greatest-ever one-day slide at the time, a fall of 108.36. City traders and investors spent the weekend, 17–18 October, repairing damaged gardens in between trying to guess market reaction and assessing the damage. 19 October, Black Monday , was memorable as being the first business day of the London markets after
3286-552: The Ärmelkanal in German, or a direct borrowing , such as Canal de la Mancha in Spanish. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as: The Strait of Dover (French: Pas de Calais ), at the Channel's eastern end, is its narrowest point, while its widest point lies between Lyme Bay and the Gulf of Saint Malo , near its midpoint. Well on
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3392-489: The "Ides of October Storm" Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title October Storm . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=October_Storm&oldid=1167951909 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Storms Hidden categories: Short description
3498-460: The Atlantic. The flooding destroyed the ridge that connected Britain to continental Europe , although a land connection across the southern North Sea would have existed intermittently at later times when periods of glaciation resulted in lowering of sea levels. During interglacial periods (when sea levels were high) between the initial flooding 450,000 years ago until around 180,000 years ago,
3604-567: The BBC's Michael Fish of a false alarm is celebrated as a classic gaffe, though he claims he was misquoted. As a result of this storm, major improvements were later implemented in atmospheric observation, relevant computer models, and the training of forecasters. On the Sunday before the storm struck, the farmers' forecast had predicted bad weather on the following Thursday or Friday, 15–16 October. By midweek, however, guidance from weather prediction models
3710-456: The BBC's Current Affairs Production Centre at the former Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush, was unable to function due to a power failure – ITV 's TV-am and BBC1 's Breakfast Time programmes were broadcast from different emergency facilities in emergency formats. TV-am broadcast from Thames Television 's Euston Road studios, while BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell had to broadcast from
3816-519: The BBC1 continuity studio at BBC Television Centre , with the wall decorations used for Children's BBC hastily taken down. Much of the public transport in the capital was not functioning, and people were advised against trying to go to work. TV-am host Anne Diamond did go back to the regular TV-am studio with reporter Kay Burley , whilst Richard Keys remained in the Thames Television studio in case
3922-524: The Channel by ensuring no major European power controlled the potential Dutch and Flemish invasion ports. Her climb to the pre-eminent sea power of the world began in 1588 as the attempted invasion of the Spanish Armada was defeated by the combination of outstanding naval tactics by the English and the Dutch under command of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham with Sir Francis Drake second in command, and
4028-522: The Channel did not connect to the North Sea, with Britain and Ireland remaining part of continental Europe , linked by an unbroken Weald–Artois anticline , a ridge running between the Dover and Calais regions. During Pleistocene glacial periods this ridge acted as a natural dam holding back a large freshwater pro-glacial lake in the Doggerland region, now submerged under the North Sea . During this period,
4134-455: The Channel for several weeks, but was thwarted following the British naval victory at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759 and was unsuccessful (The last French landing on English soil being in 1690 with a raid on Teignmouth, although the last French raid on British soil was a raid on Fishguard, Wales in 1797). Another significant challenge to British domination of the seas came during the Napoleonic Wars . The Battle of Trafalgar took place off
4240-504: The Channel is more populous than the southern, French coast. The major languages spoken in this region are English and French . Roman sources as Oceanus Britannicus (or Mare Britannicum , meaning the Ocean, or the Sea, of the Britons or Britannī ). Variations of this term were used by influential writers such as Ptolemy , and remained popular with British and continental authors well into
4346-655: The Channel served as a link joining shared cultures and political structures, particularly the huge Angevin Empire from 1135 to 1217. For nearly a thousand years, the Channel also provided a link between the Modern Celtic regions and languages of Cornwall and Brittany . Brittany was founded by Britons who fled Cornwall and Devon after Anglo-Saxon encroachment. In Brittany, there is a region known as " Cornouaille " (Cornwall) in French and "Kernev" in Breton . In ancient times there
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4452-580: The Channel would still have been separated from the North Sea by a landbridge to the north of the Strait of Dover (the Strait of Dover at this time formed part of a estuary fed by the Thames and Scheldt ), restricting interchange of marine fauna between the Channel and the North Sea (except perhaps by occasional overtopping). During the Last Interglacial/Eemian (115–130,000 years ago) the connection between
4558-589: The English Channel, with both Grey Seal and Harbour Seal recorded frequently. The Channel is thought to have prevented Neanderthals from colonising Britain during the Last Interglacial/Eemian, though they returned to Britain during the Last Glacial Period when sea levels were lower. The Channel has in historic times been both an easy entry for seafaring people and a key natural defence, halting invading armies while in conjunction with control of
4664-660: The Great Storm. English Channel The English Channel , also known as the Channel , is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France . It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world. It is about 560 kilometres (300 nautical miles; 350 statute miles) long and varies in width from 240 km (130 nmi; 150 mi) at its widest to 34 km (18 nmi; 21 mi) at its narrowest in
4770-466: The Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel. The Channel acts as a funnel that amplifies the tidal range from less than a metre at sea in eastern places to more than 6 metres in the Channel Islands , the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula and the north coast of Brittany in monthly spring tides . The time difference of about six hours between high water at
4876-447: The North Sea allowing Britain to blockade the continent. The most significant failed invasion threats came when the Dutch and Belgian ports were held by a major continental power, e.g. from the Spanish Armada in 1588, Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars , and Nazi Germany during World War II . Successful invasions include the Roman conquest of Britain , the Norman Conquest in 1066 and
4982-562: The North Sea and almost all of the British Isles were covered by ice. The lake was fed by meltwater from the Baltic and from the Caledonian and Scandinavian ice sheets that joined to the north, blocking its exit. The sea level was about 120 m (390 ft) lower than it is today. Then, between 450,000 and 180,000 years ago, at least two catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods breached
5088-417: The North Sea and the English Channel was fully open as it is today, resulting in Britain being an island during this interval, before lowered sea levels reconnected it to the continent during the Last Glacial Period . From the end of the Last Glacial Period, to the beginning of the Holocene rising sea levels again resulted in the unimpeded connection between the North Sea and the English Channel resuming due to
5194-426: The South East power systems to maintain the network as soon as signs of overheating began. At Clayton , West Sussex , one of the village's recently restored windmills , Jill , sustained severe damage to its mechanisms and caught fire during the storm. The mill's brakes had been applied prior to the storm's arrival, but the high winds were able to rotate the sails and overcome the brakes, creating friction which set
5300-498: The UK. BBC meteorologist Michael Fish drew particular criticism for reporting several hours before the storm hit: Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way; well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't, but having said that, actually, the weather will become very windy, but most of the strong winds, incidentally, will be down over Spain and across into France. Fish has subsequently claimed that his comments about
5406-420: The Weald–Artois anticline. These contributed to creating some of the deepest parts of the channel such as Hurd's Deep . The first flood of 450,000 years ago would have lasted for several months, releasing as much as one million cubic metres of water per second. The flood started with large but localised waterfalls over the ridge, which excavated depressions now known as the Fosses Dangeard . The flow eroded
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#17330859267305512-448: The arrival of the Romans in the area. The modern Welsh is often given as Môr Udd (the Lord's or Prince's Sea); however, this name originally described both the Channel and the North Sea combined. Anglo-Saxon texts make reference to the sea as Sūð-sǣ (South Sea), but this term fell out of favour, as later English authors followed the same conventions as their Latin and Norman contemporaries. One English name that did persist
5618-458: The atmosphere over the ocean to the south and west of the UK was improved by increasing the quality and quantity of observations from ships, aircraft, buoys and satellites. Continued refinements were made to the computer models used in forecasting, and changes were made in the training of forecasters. In addition, reforms in the way the Met Office reports warnings of severe weather were implemented, leading to substantially more warnings being issued in
5724-434: The beginning of the Viking Age . For the next 250 years the Scandinavian raiders of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark dominated the North Sea, raiding monasteries, homes, and towns along the coast and along the rivers that ran inland. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle they began to settle in Britain in 851. They continued to settle in the British Isles and the continent until around 1050, with some raids recorded along
5830-401: The centre of the Straits of Dover and into the English Channel. It left streamlined islands, longitudinal erosional grooves, and other features characteristic of catastrophic megaflood events, still present on the sea floor and now revealed by high-resolution sonar. Through the scoured channel passed a river, the Channel River , which drained the combined Rhine and Thames westwards to
5936-439: The channel coast of England, including at Wareham, Portland, near Weymouth and along the river Teign in Devon. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Rollo (also known as Robert of Normandy). Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks Charles the Simple through the Treaty of St.-Claire-sur-Epte . In exchange for his homage and fealty , Rollo legally gained
6042-407: The coast of France. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is deeply indented, with several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey and Mont-Saint-Michel . The Cotentin Peninsula on the French coast juts out into the Channel, with the wide Bay of the Seine (French: Baie de Seine ) to its east. On the English side there is a small parallel strait , the Solent , between
6148-408: The coast of Spain against a combined French and Spanish fleet and was won by Admiral Horatio Nelson , ending Napoleon 's plans for a cross-Channel invasion and securing British dominance of the seas for over a century. The exceptional strategic importance of the Channel as a tool for blockading was recognised by the First Sea Lord Admiral Fisher in the years before World War I . "Five keys lock up
6254-435: The continental shelf, it has an average depth of about 120 m (390 ft) at its widest; yet averages about 45 m (148 ft) between Dover and Calais , its notable sandbank hazard being Goodwin Sands . Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m (85 ft) across the Broad Fourteens (14 fathoms) where it lies over the southern cusp of the former land bridge between East Anglia and
6360-418: The depression was over the western English Channel, and its central pressure was 953 hPa (28.1 inHg). At 0140 on 16 October, warnings of Force 11 were issued. The depression now moved rapidly north-east, filling a little as it did, reaching the Humber Estuary at about 0530 UTC, by which time its central pressure was 959 hectopascals (28.3 inHg). Dramatic increases in temperature were associated with
6466-404: The description suggests the name had recently been adopted. In the sixteenth century, Dutch maps referred to the sea as the Engelse Kanaal (English Channel) and by the 1590s, William Shakespeare used the word Channel in his history plays of Henry VI , suggesting that by that time, the name was popularly understood by English people. By the eighteenth century, the name English Channel
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#17330859267306572-434: The eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance . Amphidromic points are the Bay of Biscay and varying more in precise location in the far south of the North Sea, meaning both those associated eastern coasts repel the tides effectively, leaving the Strait of Dover as every six hours the natural bottleneck short of its consequent gravity-induced repulsion of
6678-414: The end of the war and the project was abandoned. The naval blockade in the Channel and North Sea was one of the decisive factors in the German defeat in 1918. During the Second World War , naval activity in the European theatre was primarily limited to the Atlantic . During the Battle of France in May 1940, the German forces succeeded in capturing both Boulogne and Calais , thereby threatening
6784-438: The event, as crashing cables short-circuited, which in some cases overheated the main system. Its headquarters faced the choice of keeping the grid online to help London as the storm approached but risk an incremental system breakdown, failure and burnout, or to shut down most of South East England including London and avert that risk. The headquarters made the decision, the first one like it since before World War II : to shut down
6890-435: The extreme western tip of Brittany at midnight. It was measured at 948 mbar (28.0 inHg) at the Brest -Guipavas weather station, the lowest reading in its records dating back to 1945. Weather stations on the coast at pointe du Raz , pointe Saint-Mathieu and Penmarch gave no readings, as they were damaged by the high winds. The wind speed measured at Brest was 148 km/h (92 mph; 80 kn). The centre of
6996-454: The following stormy weather. Over the centuries the Royal Navy slowly grew to be the most powerful in the world. The building of the British Empire was possible only because the Royal Navy eventually managed to exercise unquestioned control over the seas around Europe, especially the Channel and the North Sea. During the Seven Years' War , France attempted to launch an invasion of Britain . To achieve this France needed to gain control of
7102-402: The frontier of Switzerland to the English Channel", they reached the coast at the North Sea. Much of the British war effort in Flanders was a bloody but successful strategy to prevent the Germans reaching the Channel coast. At the outset of the war, an attempt was made to block the path of U-boats through the Dover Strait with naval minefields . By February 1915, this had been augmented by
7208-405: The future. Further deployment of improved tracking devices and improvements in the computer model simulations were supported by the purchase of an additional Cray supercomputer . Warnings for the Burns' Day Storm just over two years later were accurate and on time, although the model forecast hinged on observations from two ships in the Atlantic near the developing storm the day before it reached
7314-444: The gale... opened magnificent views by removing about a thousand trees which owner Robin Loder said he would never have had the courage to thin out himself. The Met Office was severely criticised by most of the national press for failing to forecast the storm correctly. The Met Office conducted an internal inquiry, scrutinised by two independent assessors, and a number of recommendations were made. Chiefly, observational coverage of
7420-446: The highest measured gust at 217 km/h; 135 mph (117 kn) at Pointe du Roc, Granville , Normandy. In south-east England, where the greatest damage occurred, gusts of 130 km/h; 81 mph (70 kn) or more were recorded continually for three or four consecutive hours. During this time, the wind veered from southerly to south-westerly. To the north-west of this region, there were two maxima in gust speeds, separated by
7526-413: The lack of a weather ship in the Southwest Approaches , due to Met Office cutbacks, meant the only manner of tracking the storm was by using satellite data, as automatic buoys had not been deployed at the time. Ironically, earlier forecasts as far back as the preceding weekend had correctly identified that gale-force winds would affect Southern England. However, later runs of the model had indicated
7632-655: The line of retreat for the British Expeditionary Force . By a combination of hard fighting and German indecision, the port of Dunkirk was kept open allowing 338,000 Allied troops to be evacuated in Operation Dynamo . More than 11,000 were evacuated from Le Havre during Operation Cycle and a further 192,000 were evacuated from ports further down the coast in Operation Aerial in June 1940. The early stages of
7738-485: The mill's antique timbers on fire. Members of the Jack and Jill Windmills Society were able to put the fire out, carrying water up the hill to douse the flames. In London, many of the trees lining streets , particularly plane trees , were blown down overnight, blocking roads and crushing parked cars. Building construction scaffolding and billboards collapsed in many places, and many buildings were damaged. The following morning,
7844-521: The modern era. Other Latin names for the sea include Oceanus Gallicus (the Gaulish Ocean) which was used by Isidore of Seville in the sixth century. The term British Sea is still used by speakers of Cornish and Breton , with the sea known to them as Mor Bretannek and Mor Breizh respectively. While it is likely that these names derive from the Latin term, it is possible that they predate
7950-637: The monarch of the United Kingdom retains the title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for Chausey ) are Crown Dependencies of the British Crown . Thus the Loyal toast in the Channel Islands is Le roi, notre Duc ("The King, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to not be the Duke of Normandy in regards of the French region of Normandy described herein, by virtue of
8056-730: The most damaged areas were Greater London , Kent , the East Anglian coast, the Home Counties , the west of Brittany , and the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy , all of which weathered gusts typically with a return period of 1 in 200 years. Forests, parks, roads, and railways were strewn with fallen trees and schools were closed. The British National Grid suffered heavy damage, leaving thousands without power. At least 22 people were killed in England and France. The highest measured gust of 135 miles per hour; 217 kilometres per hour (117 kn)
8162-674: The most dangerous situation Britain faced in either world war. The Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 was fought to reduce the threat by capturing the submarine bases on the Belgian coast, though it was the introduction of convoys and not capture of the bases that averted defeat. In April 1918 the Dover Patrol carried out the Zeebrugge Raid against the U-boat bases. During 1917, the Dover Barrage
8268-576: The passage of the storm's warm front. In some sea areas, warnings of severe weather were both timely and adequate, although forecasts for land areas left much to be desired. During the evening of 15 October, radio and TV forecasts mentioned strong winds, but indicated that heavy rain would be the main feature, rather than wind. By the time most people went to bed, exceptionally strong winds had not been mentioned in national radio and TV weather broadcasts. Warnings of severe weather had been issued, however, to various agencies and emergency authorities, including
8374-555: The pier were soon abandoned as the company supervising the pier's refurbishment prior to the storm went bankrupt, and the rest of the pier was demolished by contractors shortly afterwards. A monument now stands in front of what used to be the pier entrance. A great deal of effort and money was put into the post-storm clean-up of forests and wooded areas. The writer Oliver Rackham and the charity Common Ground were active in trying to prevent unnecessary destruction of trees which, although fallen, were still living. Some landowners, such as
8480-613: The power supply situation became even worse, and indeed, power did go back down at around 8:15 am. The départements of Finistère , Morbihan , Côtes-d'Armor , and Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany, and the Cotentin Peninsula ( Manche and part of Calvados ) in Normandy were the areas in France most affected by the storm, which followed a line from Morbihan and Rennes to Deauville. 1.79 million homes were left without electricity supply and water, and
8586-574: The power vacuum left by the retreating Romans, the Germanic Angles , Saxons , and Jutes began the next great migration across the North Sea. Having already been used as mercenaries in Britain by the Romans, many people from these tribes crossed during the Migration Period , conquering and perhaps displacing the native Celtic populations. The attack on Lindisfarne in 793 is generally considered
8692-527: The retaining ridge, causing the rock dam to fail and releasing lake water into the Atlantic. After multiple episodes of changing sea level, during which the Fosses Dangeard were largely infilled by various layers of sediment, another catastrophic flood some 180,000 years ago carved a large bedrock-floored valley, the Lobourg Channel , some 500 m wide and 25 m deep, from the southern North Sea basin through
8798-519: The seven eponymous oaks in Sevenoaks , historic specimens in Kew Gardens , Wakehurst Place , Nymans Garden, Hyde Park in London, and Scotney Castle and most of the trees making up Chanctonbury Ring ). At Bedgebury National Pinetum , Kent almost a quarter of the trees were brought down. There have been many claims that the damage to forestry was made worse by broadleaf trees still being in leaf at
8904-547: The sinking of Doggerland , with Britain again becoming an island. As a busy shipping lane, the Channel experiences environmental problems following accidents involving ships with toxic cargo and oil spills. Indeed, over 40% of the UK incidents threatening pollution occur in or very near the Channel. One occurrence was the MSC Napoli , which on 18 January 2007 was beached with nearly 1700 tonnes of dangerous cargo in Lyme Bay,
9010-606: The sleeve (French: la manche ) shape of the Channel. Folk etymology has derived it from a Celtic word meaning 'channel' that is also the source of the name for the Minch in Scotland, but this name is not attested before the 17th century, and French and British sources of that time are clear about its etymology. The name in French has been directly adapted in other languages as either a calque , such as Canale della Manica in Italian or
9116-542: The south east of the United Kingdom was blacked-out by power cuts, thus losing much valuable data. Winds with an estimated 200-year return period hit the counties of Kent, Sussex, Berkshire, Hampshire, and along the coastal strip of Essex, Suffolk, and south-eastern Norfolk. North of a line from Portland Bill , Dorset to Cromer , Norfolk the return period of the respective gusts were under 10 years. Sustained winds speeds greater than 121 km/h (75 mph) were recorded for over an hour in southern Britain. According to
9222-469: The south of England, but predicted that the storm would move further south along the English Channel and the British mainland would escape the worst effects. The remainder of his warning has frequently been left out when this forecast has been repeated on television, which only adds to the public's misconception of that day's forecasting. His analysis has been defended by weather experts. In particular,
9328-599: The southward tide (surge) of the North Sea (equally from the Atlantic). The Channel does not experience, but its existence is necessary to explain the extent of North Sea storm surges , such as necessitate the Thames Barrier , Delta Works , Zuiderzee works ( Afsluitdijk and other dams). In the UK Shipping Forecast the Channel is divided into the following areas, from the east: The full English Channel connecting
9434-531: The storm and its intensity, but it might have been otherwise. Indeed, the ECMWF model forecast from 14 October 12 UTC failed to predict the strong winds and the storm position (although previous runs were closer to reality), and this could have led to inadequate warnings. This unusual inconsistency of ECMWF could have been a data assimilation issue, or came from poor data. In contrast, the French large scale model EMERAUDE made better predictions, while still underestimating
9540-478: The storm crossed Brittany from Penmarch to Saint-Brieuc at 110 km/h (68 mph; 59 kn), with gusts of wind up to 187 km/h (116 mph; 101 kn) at Quimper , 200 km/h (120 mph; 110 kn) at Ushant, and 220 km/h (140 mph; 120 kn) at la pointe de Penmarch and Granville . Waves were measured at 16 m (52 ft) off Ushant and Belle Île . Similar strength storms in France since 1960: The church at Concarneau
9646-531: The storm was that it struck the densely populated southeast of England. That winds in the South East had return periods of 1 in 200 years does not mean the winds of this strength occur once every 200 years, but that the winds have a 0.5% probability of happening in a given year. Following this storm 1.3 million incidents of damage were reported, which is only exceeded by the Gale of January 1976 where destruction covered
9752-565: The territory he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (i.e. "Northman") origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and intermarried with the area's inhabitants and became the Normans – a Norman French -speaking mixture of Scandinavians , Hiberno-Norse , Orcadians , Anglo-Danish , and indigenous Franks and Gauls . Rollo's descendant William, Duke of Normandy became king of England in 1066 in
9858-667: The time of the storm, though this was not borne out by an analysis by the Forestry Commission . Fallen trees blocked roads and railways, and left widespread structural damage primarily to windows and roofs. More than 5,000 trees fell on railway tracks in the Southern Region , and the Midland and West Coast main lines were blocked. Beach huts were blown onto tracks at Leigh-on-Sea . The roofs and canopies at Limehouse and Benfleet stations were destroyed, and £300,000 of damage
9964-617: The winds. It is recognised that without the experience of the forecasters, the exceptional aspects of the storm would have been missed. In the wake of the storm, the Met Office set up the National Severe Weather Warning Service . It has been said that as 15–16 October 1987 approached, shipping weather forecasts warned of storm movements in the North Atlantic, with the result that ships stayed away from North Atlantic storm tracks, depriving North Atlantic meteorology of
10070-614: The world! Singapore, the Cape, Alexandria , Gibraltar, Dover." However, on 25 July 1909 Louis Blériot made the first Channel crossing from Calais to Dover in an aeroplane. Blériot's crossing signalled a change in the function of the Channel as a barrier-moat for England against foreign enemies. Because the Kaiserliche Marine surface fleet could not match the British Grand Fleet, the Germans developed submarine warfare , which
10176-403: Was also a " Domnonia " (Devon) in Brittany as well. In February 1684 , ice formed on the sea in a belt 4.8 km (3.0 mi) wide off the coast of Kent and 3.2 km (2.0 mi) wide on the French side. Remnants of a mesolithic boatyard have been found on the Isle of Wight . Wheat was traded across the Channel about 8,000 years ago. "... Sophisticated social networks linked
10282-399: Was caused to construction work on a new train ferry pier at Dover Western Docks station . Several hundred thousand people were left without power, not fully restored until more than two weeks later. Local electric utility officials later said they lost more wires in the storm than in the preceding decade. At sea, as well as many small boats being wrecked, a Sealink cross-channel ferry,
10388-495: Was damaged but never rebuilt, and was finally demolished a few years later. The MS Herald of Free Enterprise was caught in the storm off Cape Finisterre as it was making its way for scrapping in Taiwan. The ship was cast adrift after its tow rope parted, finally resuming its journey on 19 October 1987. The storm cost the insurance industry £2 billion, making it the second most expensive UK weather event on record to insurers after
10494-536: Was first recorded in Middle English in the 13th century and was borrowed from the Old French word chanel (a variant form of chenel 'canal'). By the middle of the fifteenth century, an Italian map based on Ptolemy 's description named the sea as Britanicus Oceanus nunc Canalites Anglie (Ocean of the Britons but now English Channel). The map is possibly the first recorded use of the term English Channel and
10600-551: Was given, devastated agriculture and 5% of forestry in Scotland, toppled shipbuilding cranes on the Clyde, and left almost 2000 people homeless in the Central Belt . Following the storm, few dealers made it to their desks, and stock market trading was suspended twice; the market closed early at 12:30. The disruption meant the City was unable to respond to the late trading at the beginning of
10706-514: Was in common usage in England . Following the Acts of Union 1707 , this was replaced in official maps and documents with British Channel or British Sea for much of the next century. However, the term English Channel remained popular and was finally in official usage by the nineteenth century. The French name la Manche has been used since at least the 17th century. The name is usually said to refer to
10812-486: Was re-sited with improved mines and more effective nets, aided by regular patrols by small warships equipped with powerful searchlights. A German attack on these vessels resulted in the Battle of Dover Strait in 1917 . A much more ambitious attempt to improve the barrage, by installing eight massive concrete towers across the strait was called the Admiralty M-N Scheme but only two towers were nearing completion at
10918-420: Was recorded at Pointe Du Roc, Granville , France and the highest gust in the UK of 120 mph; 190 km/h (100 kn) was recorded at Shoreham , West Sussex . The storm has been termed a weather bomb due to its rapid development. That day's weather reports had failed to indicate a storm of such severity, an earlier, correct forecast having been negated by later projections. The apparent suggestion by
11024-481: Was somewhat equivocal. Instead of stormy weather over a considerable part of the UK, the models suggested that severe weather would reach no farther north than the English Channel and coastal parts of southern England. During the afternoon of 15 October, winds were very light over most parts of the UK. The pressure gradient was slack. A depression was drifting slowly northwards over the North Sea off eastern Scotland. A trough lay over England, Wales, and Ireland. Over
11130-539: Was the Narrow Seas , a collective term for the channel and North Sea . As England (followed by Great Britain and the United Kingdom) claimed sovereignty over the sea, a Royal Navy Admiral was appointed with maintaining duties in the two seas. The office was maintained until 1822, when several European nations (including the United Kingdom) adopted a three-mile (4.8 km) limit to territorial waters. The word channel
11236-530: Was to become a far greater threat to Britain. The Dover Patrol , set up just before the war started, escorted cross-Channel troopships and prevented submarines from sailing in the Channel, obliging them to travel to the Atlantic via the much longer route around Scotland. On land, the German army attempted to capture French Channel ports in the Race to the Sea but although the trenches are often said to have stretched "from
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