Great Storm October 1987
One of Britain’s most destructive storms on record hit England’s south-eastern corner on October 16 1987.
And it was the most violent storm to hit South-East, Central South England and East Anglia for 284 years. About 15 million trees across an area stretching in a line from Dorset to the Wash were destroyed including many of the famous ancient oaks that gave Seven Oaks its name.
Eighteen people lost their lives in the ‘big blow’ dubbed incorrectly as a hurricane by some. Two firefighters died when a tree came down on top of the fire engine they were in travelling in on the Hampshire/Dorset border. The storm hit Hampshire at around 2am and winds gusting to over 100mph travelled quickly eastwards. A noteable point here was the rapid rise in temperature with a warm front’s passage. During a 20minute period the mercury rose from 8.5C at South Farnborough to 17.6C. The temperature fell rapidly after the cold front and bad weather passed. Powerlines were brought down along with buildings across the region. A block of flats at Barton-on-Sea housing elderly people suffered severe damaged and the occupants had to be evacuated. And large sections of Shanklin Pier on the Isle of Wight were destroyed by the high winds and the mountainous seas whipped up by the gales.
I remember getting ready to go off to work on the morning of the 16th and the storm which began overnight was still raging. I put the radio on at about 5am and reports were coming in of the destruction caused by the storm and the news Hampshire had been placed on an emergency footing. As I opened the door about half-an-hour later, a violent gust of wind lifted the lid off the loft door. I got in the car and tried to drive to work in Romsey but like many other Hampshire roads, fallen trees blocked every route out of Mottisfont. Hundreds of trees in the Romsey and Stockbridge area were toppled during the storm and many that did manage to stay upright were smashed to pieces. The storm struck when the majority of deciduous trees were still in full leaf –hence more destruction than what might have happened otherwise. It took many weeks for Southern Electric and British Telecom to repair damaged cables. A deep area of low pressure in the Bay of Biscay was the blame for the worst weather event for nearly 300 years. The low which at one point had a central pressure of 953millibars, moved north east into the western English Channel before hitting landfall over central-south England. It then headed for the east Midlands before heading out into the North Sea near the Wash estuary.. On its eastern flank were the destructive winds.