The great storm of was a violent extratropical cyclone that occurred on the night of 15β16 October, with hurricane-force winds causing casualties in England , France , and the Channel Islands as a severe depression in the Bay of Biscay moved northeast. Among the most damaged areas were Greater London , Kent , 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 years.
Forests, parks, roads, and railways were strewn with fallen trees and schools were closed. The British National Grid suffered heavy damage, leaving thousands without power.
At least 22 people were killed in England and France. That day's weather reports had failed to indicate a storm of such severity, an earlier, correct forecast having been negated by later projections. The apparent suggestion by the BBC's Michael Fish of a false alarm is celebrated as a classic gaffe, though he claims he was misquoted.
On the Sunday before the storm struck, the farmers' forecast had predicted bad weather on the following Thursday or Friday, 15β16 October. 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. The first gale warnings for sea areas in the English Channel were issued at UTC on 15 October and were followed, four hours later, by warnings of severe gales. At UTC, winds of Force 10 were forecast. By midnight, the depression was over the western English Channel, and its central pressure was hPa At on 16 October, warnings of Force 11 were issued.
