From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
Sometimes I am lost for words!
For years the Met Office has acknowledged that no UK storm in recent years has gone close to the severity of a string of storms in the 1980s and 90s.
For instance, this from their State of the UK Climate Report 2023:
https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/joc.8553
But according to their new State of Climate Report, the Great Storm of 1987 was nothing compared to Storm Eowyn in January 2025:
And here is the evidence, you disbelieving plebs!
The 1987 storm only SEEMED bad, because the trees were in leaf!
This dishonesty goes well beyond mere gaslighting. To suggest Eowyn was worse is an outright lie.
Part of the explanation for fewer station counts in 1987 is that the storm really only hit the south east at full intensity, whereas Eowyn cut a swathe from N Ireland to eastern Scotland.
But the real reason is that Eowyn passed over mainly upland landscapes and rocky coasts, all of course highly exposed where wind speeds are naturally much higher.
Look at the map for Eowyn:
Eowyn ran straight across the hills of N Ireland, the exposed coasts of Western Scotland, then passed over Lanarkshire Hills and for good measure exited over high clifftops on the North Sea coast. Just about all of those 70 knots+ occurred in highly exposed locations.
Top wind speed was 100 mph on top of a 900ft hill at Drumalbin. followed six other hopelessly exposed sites; Brizelee, for instance, is 800ft high, Aberdaron is at the top of a high cliff at the tip of the Lleyn Peninsula and so on:
In contrast, gusts of over 90 knots were recorded at several other coastal locations. Shoreham is officially the highest at 98 knots, though Stephen Burt’s analysis found much stronger winds at Gorleston:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260891819_The_Great_Storm_of_15-16_October_1987
Even well inland at low altitude sites, gusts exceeded 80 knots. The London Weather Centre recorded 82 knots at 2.50 am, and 86 knots, (99 mph), was recorded at Gatwick Airport at 4.30 am.
To compare mountain and clifftop sites with lowland ones, where people actually live, and in this case sadly died, is not scientific and it most certainly is not worthy of any scientific organisation.
To put things into perspective, Eowyn brought gusts of only 58 knots in Eskdalemuir, which lay in the centre of the storm track but is a much less exposed location.
Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?
Well, just take another look at their chart:
Why on earth would they want to highlight the 1987 storm, if it was not to make people think Eowyn was much worse?
