A night to remember - Your memories of the Great Storm of October 1987
Some 30 years ago on Sunday night, Michael Fish famously told BBC viewers there would be no hurricane.
And 30 years ago on Monday morning, many of us woke up to scenes of absolute devastation across South East England after the worst storm in the UK for over 200 years.
Elizabeth Rizzini BBC Weather presenter: I was a small child. I was woken up by howling winds, creaking trees and banging window panes.
I remember very clearly standing at my bedroom window in the outskirts of Croydon, Surrey, watching as my tree-lined avenue became, well , less tree-lined.
The red cherry tree in our front garden went first with a loud thud, followed by all the hulking lime trees -down they fell, like dominoes, like toys.
It was eerie and scary yet somehow fascinating. I don't remember seeing my parents and my little sister managed to sleep right through. Next day - it looked like a jungle. A mess of branches, whole trees, tiles, debris. Luckily no-one had been hurt.
My mum on the left surveying the damage while the neighbour chainsaws the debris.
All the dads got together with their chainsaws and chopped the trees up. I clamoured over the trunks to get to school, was the only kid who bothered and got sent home again promptly. I'll never forget that night or the following morning and have never seen anything like it since!
Our Irish next-door neighbours had some clearing up to do!
Sad remains of the cherry tree in the front garden. My bedroom window was above the window on the left. Luckily the Renault 5 remained intact.
Georgina Burnett BBC Weather presenter: I remember walking through the New Forest and being so upset at seeing so many trees down. But I was so young (cough) and I don't remember more than that!
Alina Jenkins BBC Weather presenter: I managed to sleep through the whole storm and remember waking up at our house near Southampton to find the cherry tree in the back garden completely uprooted. Driving down the M27 towards Fareham you could see all the boats which were moored along the River Hamble blown on to the shore.
Philip Avery BBC Weather presenter: We lost our roof that night!
Tony Doyle on Twitter: I spent the night in Faversham, Kent, fresh over from Ireland and saw oak trees next morning broken like matches.
Stuart McNaughton on Twitter: I lived in Eastbourne at the time and remember waking during the night due to a banging garage door. Next day trees down & school closed!
David Martin on Twitter: On the night of the great storm I was on the ferry from Zeebruggee to Harwich. We had to ride it out at sea as there was no power in Harwich
Mark Crail on Twitter: On plane home from hols in Crete when at 30k ft pilot announced "ladies & gents I have bad news". Quite relieved it was just about a storm!
Jeremy Snelling on Twitter: Slept right through it. On way to work next day saw a house with its gable end blown out and thought "what on earth happened there?"
Shantelle Robinson on Twitter: Although before my time ... my Dad took this in Clacton-On-Sea, its my Nan's old house and her neighbour's where a large tree fell onto it!
Shantelle's Nan's house in Clacton-on Sea , 16th October 1987
Binibeca-villa on Twitter: Sevenoaks, Kent being turned into Threeoaks and the pub being packed lunchtime as nobody could get to work🍻
Roger Webber on Twitter:
Destruction in Leigh-on-Sea taken by Roger Webber
Mick Judd on Twitter: Lots of rain in Great Chart , Ashford , leading to scenes like this
Great Chart, Kent
Did you know?
At the time there was a hurricane in the Atlantic and this was the storm Michael Fish was actually referring to in his infamous broadcast
The computer models incorrectly predicted the storm would only skim the south coast of England but severe weather with heavy rain had been in the forecast
The storm contained a "sting jet" a meteorological phenomenon shaped like a scorpion's tail giving particularly strong winds to a small geographical area.
The greatest damage was felt in SE England where gusts exceeded 80mph for around 3-4 hours.
The highest UK gust was 115mph at Shoreham in Sussex
The storm was NOT a hurricane as it was not of tropical origin and the sustained wind speeds weren't high enough but hurricane force (FORCE 12 ) guests were experienced locally.
18 people were killed in England, 15 million trees were destroyed, thousands of homes lost power and a Channel ferry was blown onshore.
It is widely considered lucky the storm struck at night and not during the day or there could have been even greater loss of life.
