h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Have you seen Create this month? A87824802
It's all about the weather. I've been thinking, what can I write about the weather? If I'm struggling to come up with ideas, then why not try a topic in which lots of people can contribute, and we'll see if we have enough contributions to put something into Peer Review about it at the end of the month? (As I don't know if we will have enough contributions, I'll suggest 2 topics and hopefully someone will discuss one of 'em).

So, do you remember the Great Storm of 1987? (A bit UK-centric, I fear) Remembered for Michael Fish promising there's not going to be a hurricane only for trees to blow down, landmarks to be washed away and schools to close? If so, where were you and what are your memories?

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The Great Storm bypassed Ireland by coming in from the southwest, so I didn't experience it.

Michael Fish still claims he was correct - 1. all the evidence pointed to no storm. 2. - it wasn't a hurricane, just hurricane-force.

I've also heard that the reason the weather forecasters had no warning was because government cuts had removed some of the weather monitoring ships in the ocean. (It had to be done by ships in those days). A vital weather ship in the Bay of Biscay would have spotted the storm but it had been retired to save money.

I recall quite clearly, listening to Michael Fish's weather forecast, when he said those immortal words.... But I don't particularly recall the storm itself, so I'm guessing it wasn't all* that distructive where I was... I do recall going past a forrest/wood, some time later (perhaps on the train, going past Thetford forest? can't remember), and looking out over the landscape, and it was... kind of cartoon-esk, err, actually more like looking at a really life-like painting, out of the car/train window; all the trees, 'like matchsticks' (well, they were probably pine trees), laying flat, all lined up so* neatly I recall the really heavy snow, one year.... possibly near about the same time, and walking down little country lanes, where the snow had been 'cleared', and thence pushed up to either side; and having walls of snow, either side, at least 6 Ft up above my head... (I was quite young so I guess shorter than I is now) I also recall my Father getting 'snowed in' at work, and not making it home for a week or so during that snow... (1988? 1989?, perhaps earlier...)

I remember the storm took all the large ridge tiles off the roof and deposited them neatly around the garden. The cat managed to avoid being hit by them. As did the car, which was parked wind-side of the house.

An astonishing number of trees were flattened. In my local nature reserve we leave fallen trees as habitats for fungi and insects. We still have a few there from 1987, but the wood's pretty much rotted down now.

We had another large storm a couple of years after - almost but not quite as bad as 1987. I remember one of my colleagues who drove in arriving in a very bad state. He was in a queue of traffic just behind a car which was crushed by a falling tree, killing the occupant. It took a very long time for him to stop shaking.

I remember reading about the storm and feeling bad for the destruction that it caused. I can't believe that a storm with hurricane-force winds could be regarded as not a hurricane -- winter snowstorms excepted, of course.



In Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire,
Hurricanes hardly happen.

[Were Lerner and Loewe wrong? ]

Yes, I remember it. Incredibly noisy all through the night and then half an oak tree fell on the house round about 6am. I still get nervy when the wind picks up, all these years later.

Mol

I remember it well, but not because of the storm, as I slept through it.

I was working in the retail trade at the time, and the day of the aftermath was my day off, so I'd been out that evening, looking forward to an empty house and a lie-in.

The next morning the house was in uproar, with my four flat-mates shouting about the 'damage' and being unable to get to work, although not one of them attempted it.

I eventually gave up sleeping, and left the house, for a bit of piece and quiet. I decided to cycle from Streatham, where I lived, to Chelsea, to assess the damage. In Wandsworth there was quite a bit of foliage littering the streets, but nothing of any serious note, until I reached Clapham Common, where there was quite a bit of arboreal damage, with branches down, and a far number of elms and maples flattened. In places it was difficult to cycle across the common. Eventually I arrived in Chelsea, having seen some more storm damage, but not a much as I expected. I believe the surrounding Counties took the brunt of the storm and we got off lightly.

When I arrived at the work-place I found that around 33% of staff had phoned in to say they couldn't make it so, as I was there, and wanted to get away from my raving flat-mates, I offered to work, which was gratefully accepted.

"The Forgotten Great Storm 1978".

However, I do remember Kent's 'Great Storm' of Wednesday 11th January 1978. This is was a storm-surge that has largely been forgotten by many except those who were there.

On that evening I was volunteering at a youth club in Cliftonville, an area North-East of Margate, situated on top of a chalk cliff. By 20.30 the weather outside had become very unpleasant, with the ceramic facia tiles around the outside of the building being ripped off.

It was felt that the weather was such that it was best if we evacuated the building and sent everyone home. This was done fairly quickly and, by 21.00 I was heading home. Now I was in a quandary. Did I cycle the 5 miles to Ramsgate (as the crow flies) or take the train?

Judging by the strength of the wind, I didn't fancy cycling, especially with the strong gusts, so decided to head for Margate station. This entailed cycling into the wind to Fort Hill, which was fairly steep, running down the edge of the cliff, to Margate harbour, and the clock tower, followed by a 400 yard ride along Margate's amusement 'Golden Mile' to get to the station.

As I left the youth club on my bike, I could see a white box van trying to drive along the road to reach Fort Hill, but kept being stopped by the force of the wind. I struggled, making little progress. Once onto Fort hill the gradient assisted but could see advertising hoardings being blown cartwheel style, up the hill.

On reaching the Clocktower, there was around 6" (30cm) of sea water/rainfall on the road, and spume and spray being blown over the sea wall as well as waves breaking over. By now, I was using the bicycle as a walking frame. As I neared the Station the bricks forming the facade of Dreamland amusement arcade were being flung into the road. I could envisage what it was like to be hailed by mortars.

I opted to continue on the sea-side of the road, hoping to avoid the breaking waves, eventually reaching Margate station around 21.45, a journey that would usually take 10 minutes to cycle.

A train pulled into the station at 21.55 and I climbed on, bike and all. The train attempted to leave the station but on trying to get past the cover of the station, was halted. The driver decided to reverse the train around 100 yards into the station and get enough momentum to get out of the station.

The bizarre nature of the evening hadn't run it's course. When I reached Ramsgate, who's station is on the town's outskirts, around a mile from the centre, the wind was much less than in Margate, and cycling into Ramsgate was a breeze (), although I lived on the outskirts of Ramsgate to the South-West, so was unaware of how Ramsgate seafront was being unaffected.

The following day, the toll of the storm was realised.

Both margate and Herne Bay piers were made inoperable and had to be closed to the public, as the sections linking the pier end to the land having been washed away. Margate's Lido had been destroyed, with the deck-chairs being broken and resembling Matchsticks. Ramsgate harbour's East Pier had 10ton blocks ripped from the wall, and lost in the sea. I understand none were found, and new sections had to be made.

Scavengers, including my Father, poured onto Margate beach over the next two days, purloining the wood that had formed Margate Pier's decking, being good-quality and well-seasoned mahogany. This was despite the Police and Council providing a token presence to prevent looting. I was informed that it was cheaper to let locals raid the booty than to pay Council employees to remove and despise of the storm wrack. My Mother benefitted from quality, built-in kitchen units, and wood leftover for quite a number of other projects.

On the Thursday I found that the sand that was being blown off the beach had blown through my genuine Royal Navy greatcoat and into my back. It took ages to get the coat clean and sand free, while my back took about a week.

Certainly an evening I will not forget. I have the pictorial souvenir, as well as a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings to remind me of that 'Great Storm', now largely on the scrapheap of remembered storms. Why? Because it didn't affect London or it's suburbs. I understand that the East coast suffered worse but, due to improved defences following the surge of 1953, the devastation was minimised, much as it was with the surge of december 6th, 2013.

http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4411.0

http://www.margatelocalhistory.co.uk/Pictures/Pictures-Storms.html#a9

I hope that is the sort of thing you were looking for. Unfortunately I have no photographs of either storm as all my photos, pre-2000 disappeared in a flat move.



MMF



PS. Margate pier refused to die. It is listed as The least successful Pier demolition. Possibly ever. The superstructure was the first to go, with the pier head being reached by boat. Carefully.
The first attempt, a year after the pier was largely destroyed, was by a demolition expert which did no more than send up a gout of water hundreds of feet into the air. The second sent a rivet flying over the coast road, through the window of a pub and wedging itself into the wall opposite.
For safety reasons, the next two explosions were carried out at midnight, doing little apart from waking the townsfolk of Margate. A curfew was then imposed, with little damage done to the pier except a slight list to the Lifeboat house. Further attempts were undertaken, to destroy each of the 34 legs one at a time. Even the Royal Engineers were called in. I am led to believe that the legs were finally cut off at beach level. Today the Turner Contemporary looks out over the final remains of the pier, wit bouts pointing out the hazards to shipping.

So even today, Margate pier still remains, a testimony to Victorian Engineering. They built to last then.

The pier was built in 1857, completed in 1875 and extended in 1893 and 1900. It had a previous brush with partial demolition, when a drifting vessel collided with the central section of the pier in 1877, destroying it and stranding 50 people overnight, until a rescue could be attempted the following day.

ews.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19790328&id=JGIaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oykEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3168,4689764

I really remember The Great Storm of '87, I was kept up all night when the sash windows of our room shook.

The next day we went to school, St John's Primary School in Sandown, Isle of Wight, just along the road from our house, and the road was blocked by a fallen tree. I got the day off school as my teacher couldn't get in because of all the trees, my older sister's teacher lived locally and had made it in, so she had to go in.

My Mum, Dad and I made sure my grandparents were all right, and then we went to Shanklin, where the pier, only 2 miles from my house, was destroyed. It had been cut into 3, with the dome in the middle gone. The beach around was swarming with people with metal detectors – perhaps they were looking for coins from the arcade machines that used to be on the pier?

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I read about the storm, I was in Bielefeld at the time so I didn't experience it directly. But a while later I was stationed in Ashford, Kent and as it was one of those rufty-tufty soldiery type of courses we did an awful lot of log runs in the morning - unluckily for us there were a LOT of available bits of dead tree lying around.

I remember the 87 storm very well. I watched Michael Fish make that pronouncement on (probably) the final weather forecast of the day the night before.
Then awoke to almighty winds.
Our school didn't close but it was a struggle to walk there (yes people still walked to school back then! <shock&gt
On the way home at lunchtime my mate got blown into a low wall and then over as it took his legs from under him. We laughed

At home at lunchtime I was making my dinner when I heard a noise from the garden. I looked out to see the back wall only half standing. Interesting! I thought then watched in a mixture of wonder and horror as the other larger chunk got blown over before my eyes.

On the way back to school we saw a house where the garden shed roof had been blow off and straight through the wall of the main house. Oops.

This was in Bedford well away from the main force of the storm in the true South of the UK. It must have been truly terrifying down in Kent.

I spent that night in one of the Heathrow hotels where I lay awake listening to the remains of the air-conditioning hut from the roof blow around the carpark.

We watched the first aircraft land at Heathrow the following morning, sideways. There were several trees that had fallen across the road on the way Old Windsor.

I travelled round the Southern side of the M25 in the weeks following. At the A2 junction there was a field of trees all broken off, as though wiped with a huge scythe. My parents, who lived not far from there, lost a few tiles, but fortunately on the single story utility room behind the garage, so they were easy to replace.

I think 1989 flattened my Sumac tree (in Wiltshire). I remember lying in bed, head towards the chimney breast, wondering how good the pointing was above me.

I remember it well. I was in Jersey and due to fly back to Heathrow at 4.30 in the afternoon. however the plane couldn't land until around 10.00 in the evening. we got on the plane and took off sideways I kid you not. we got from Jersey to Heathrow in around 20 mins half the normal time. I remember the pilot saying we've got a 100mph tail wind.
I woke up and started the drive to work and the BBC was transmitting on standby power and they were talking about this great disaster that had struck. I finally did make it in to work after about 4 hours from Northamptonshire to New Malden. there were people who lived within walking distance phoning in to say they couldn't get the car out of the drive and wouldn't be in. Need I say more?

Yes I do.Listened as the house next door but one lost all it's tiles one by one.It was like bombs going off all night and if it sounded bad to me, my neighbour must have been terrified as many of them hit her house.
I then spent the early hours of the morning checking that the sycamore tree next door didn't fall onto my house,finishing off the morning watching the roof of next door's garage being torn off inch by inch..

I was due to go to work that day but called in to say I was staying home because the Portsmouth Ferry services were cancelled.Just as well as there was a flood in the school.

Later I found there were walls,fences,trees down all over.The worst damage in my road was one house that lost the entire side wall.Very,very scary.

I was about six years old at the time, and being told I could not play outside because it was "windy."

yes because you were six and if let out you would all be making your anoraks into human sails

Oh yes!

My second baby was slightly overdue then. My husband was lying awake in the spare room feeling the house shake while I slept through. In the morning there were reports that the road to the maternity hospital was blocked with fallen trees, but luckily baby didn't arrive until 5 days later.
We had one tree fall down in our garden but no damage done.

I remember it being on the news, but I slept through it, and went to work the next day with nothing out of the ordinary happening...

Any more comments? I don't think there's enough here for something to put into Peer Review, but we should be able to make a article.

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