On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 17:02:11 -0000, "Philip Eden"
philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom wrote:


"Martin Rowley" wrote in message
...
This might be of interest ...

http://www.metoffice.com/education/historic/1987.html

Thanks for alerting us to that link, Martin. Even a cursory look shows that
some text and several figures are identical to those in "The Great Storm of 15-16
October 1987", by Burt and Mansfield, Weather 43 (3), 1988, even to the
extent of including mention of the erroneous gust report of 106kn at
Gorleston which was quickly shown to be erroneous and was corrected (including a
redrawn map) in Weather a few months later.

Hmmm... I've often relied on Martin's link for what I thought was
accurate wind speed data about this event and now, I'm wondering how
reliable the rest of it is.

Do you (or does anyone) happen to know if the 10 minute mean wind
speed of 70 knots at Lee-on-the-Solent, mentioned in the Met Office
article, has been accepted officially and if it is in fact the
highest mainland 10 minute mean wind speed recorded in this event? I'd
particularly like to know as it's a clear hurricane force 12 at a low
level station on land - and it occurred just down the road from where
I now live.

Horror stories about the great storm of '87 still abound in this area
- but many people, including some National media, don't seem to
realise its full effects were felt this far West (including the Isle
of Wight).

Cheers

Dave
Fareham.