page_title: Great Storm of 1987
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Great Storm of 1987 / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: After the great storm of the previous night, fallen trees have been partly cleared in Stump Lane, Springfield.
context_page_description: 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 the most damaged areas were Greater London, 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 as well as schools being 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 117 kn was recorded at Pointe Du Roc, Granville, France and the highest gust in the UK of 106 kn was recorded at Gorleston-on-Sea. 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.
context_section_description: 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 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 the Bay of Biscay, a depression was developing.
caption: Partially cleared storm damage, Chelmsford
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