The British Isles has a varied climate, meaning that we often do not know what the weather will be like on a day to day basis. It can easily be sunny one day and raining the next which makes all weather predictions very challenging. Our temperate climate means that temperatures are usually mild, dropping not much lower than 00C in winter and not much higher than 320C in summer. Any fluctuations in weather and temperature are very small. A storm is a violent disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds and usually rain, thunder, lightning, or snow. Although it is very rare for the British Isles to experience any extreme weather (rain, wind, heat, cold or drought) storm events have occurred and will continue to occur in the future.
On October 15th/16th 1987, the Great storm hit the British Isles. This particular storm event was very significant as is caused mass destruction to Southern England, especially in areas such as Kent Hampshire and Sussex. On October 15, winds seemed very light and nothing suggested a storm was on its way. However, over the Bay of Biscay a depression was forming. This depression was a result of the warm air from Africa meeting cold air from the Atlantic Ocean. The depression intensified and began to move northwards and although forecasters stated it would not reach England, by midnight it had changed course and was moving towards the South Coast. By 1:40 on 16 October, force 11 winds were issued as it moved north – east. It reached the Humber estuary at 5:30, its central pressure was at 959 mb. The pressure of the depression saw a drop of 11 mb in just over 12 hours, this reduction in pressure was aided by the release of heat energy due to the deepening of the jet stream and warming over the Bay of Biscay. Britain experienced incredibly strong winds. In Cornwall and Devon, where the storm first hit, gusts up to 190kph were reported. Along with this, rapid temperature changes were recorded due to the passing of the warm front. In...