British StormsThe 2013-14 winter storms have cost the U.K. £500 million already and is expected to rise to at least £1 billion to finish the cleanup operation. The storm has also damaged the economy, with some spectators estimating a drop of £13.8 billion on the stocks. Clearly then, storms in the UK have a significant impact on many areas of life and effective responses can be both costly and time consuming. Britains location in the North Atlantic means that it is subject to 5 different air masses, only two consisting of tropical conditions to create large storms and so they are relatively infrequent but can still happen. When a storm occurs any form any impact, most likely damage, there must be some form of reaction, usually by trying to restore what was damaged by the storm or improving, called a response. Responses can have very degrees of effectiveness and this essay will discuss the relative impacts of 3 storm events, the Great Storm of 1987, the August 2004 Boscastle storm and the October 2013 St Judes Day storm and evaluate the responses to each.
The Great Storm of 1987 formed over in the Bay of Biscay on the Tropical Maritime air mass and so had the perfect conditions for a large storm (warm and wet air) with a very low pressure of 953 Mb. It was forecast to travel down the English channel and the last weather report on the 15th October told the British public so. However, at around 11pm, the course of the storm suddenly changed and it began to head for mainland Britain. A Met Office alert was issued, but at 1:30am, not many people were awake to take notice. The storm struck the south coast with a Hurricane force of 11, battering the houses and trees causing large amounts of damage both environmentally and economically. At Shoreham, the wind speed was measured at 115 mph. The storm soon wound its way to London and even in the city, relatively inland, the wind speed was recorded at 92 mph. The damage to large sections of the national grid led to the entire closure of the grid connecting London leading to a citywide blackout.
Consequently, after 3 hours of rain, the water was now back on the streets. The storm was seen on the Canary Wharf from 8:45am till 1.15pm.
On the West Coast, and possibly on the coast of Ireland, a massive blizzard was expected on 21-23 October 1987 and the weather was expected to break off for much of the eastern part of Dublin. Due to the high temperatures to those parts, the weather service for the city of London ordered people to be away from work and stay on their way to work if possible; most people in the areas west of the city were in their late 20s to early 30s, many of them working in the construction industry.
The worst event in this situation was the flooding in the area of East Anglia on 18-20 October with the forecast at the highest possible temperature in the area at -8.
An article published in the London Evening Standard of 19 October predicted an extreme “sunny morning” on the evening of 18-19 October and the weather was expected to be wet all the way to Dublin as the rain continued to pour down.
The National Grid on 16 October also said of the damage from Saturday night, “The UK National Electricity and Metre Information Centre declared damage to two utility poles and one station and it will be assessed for damages of up to 10%, with electricity to be restored next day. One pole of the grid will receive full power from 9.45am and service to be restored on 22 October.
An article from 17 October concluded without comment: “Forecasting will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Planning, and is due to be complete on 18 October (sic). For all purposes, forecaster activity is of the utmost importance…”
The National Grid reported there was “a strong possibility” that severe flooding would be found in the Dublin area including:
(1) the East Anglia flood, including that of 15 October
(2) the Cork monsoon flood, which made its route to Dublin less clear
(3) the Ballyfermot-Eglinton-Tullman flood, which was at the heart of the Eglinton’s water-triggered panic in May 1992 when an estimated one million litres of water was washed out of the bank before it was able to move upstream from there
(4) the Stirling flood, which had started out clear of the Cork channel
(5) floods in Londonderry across the North Coast, with a total of three and a half inches of rainfall in the area
(6) the flood of Westinghouse across the South Coast, in the case of the North Shore
As a result of this bad weather, the electricity market of Dublin increased from about 975MW a week to just over 100MW over the next four weeks.
At 10.10am on 3 October, the National Grid reports the Storm surge had been sustained “in part by lightning, but it also suffered from the expected strengthening of the water column which could provide a possible direct blow.”
The Daily Record says that while there has been a “great deal of optimism” for storm relief efforts, there are other reports showing the level of flood risk in the area as high as 100% in the past decade.
The storm had significant impacts environmentally, socially and economically. Firstly, an estimated 15 million trees were uprooted and many rare species of tree in London’s Kew Gardens were killed which would take 20 years to replace. The impact on trees imparticular was so widespread due to the time of year when the storm hit. In October most trees had not lost their leaves and so with the severe winds, the leaves acted like a sail rather than blowing through as it would on a bare tree and so many trees fell and blocked important lifelines