The British weather is a topical subject by anyone’s standards. A talking point for generations, the vagaries are normally met with the staunch stoicism of a resident resigned to wet summers and even wetter winters!

The subject has assumed even more significance in recent years due to the increased awareness around the climate change situation which scientists believe has, and will continue, to be the cause of dramatic weather aberrations as the years go on!

But we in the UK have had our fair share of extremely wild weather incidents that have resulted in upheavals on a major scale, causing acute danger to life and limb, not to mention widespread damage to hearth and home.

Here we take a look back at four of the most devastating events that have hit our land weatherwise over the past 100 years.

The Great London Flood

7th January 1928

Over Christmas, in 1927 there was a heavy snowfall in the Cotswolds, where the River Thames has its source.

On New Year’s eve, a sudden thaw occurred, after which an unusually heavy rainfall doubled the volume of water cascading down the river.

This sequence of events would have been problematical enough just by itself, but there were two further factors that combined to turn an increasingly dangerous situation into a total disaster that caused havoc in the very heart of the largest city in the world at that time, London!

There was also a high spring tide, coinciding with the rare occurrence of a major extra tropical cyclone in the North Sea, which caused a storm surge!

The waters in the Thames Estuary rose 4 feet above normal, and as it began to funnel as it raced on toward London the rise continued!

The result was an all-time high, as at around 01:30 on the morning of the 7th, a level of 18 ft 3 inches above the datum level was recorded.

Something had to give, and give they did with the river overflowing the Embankments at the City of London and Southwark, before doing the same at Putney and Hammersmith.

Not content with wreaking havoc at these localities, the Thames continued on its remorseless marauding, flooding Greenwich, Woolwich and further points upriver with devastating effect!

Fourteen people died and thousands were rendered homeless, as the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Hall the Tate Gallery and London Underground Stations were engulfed, among many other buildings.

The moat at the Tower Of London refilled with water having been empty for 80 years!

Milbank had to be entirely rebuilt in the aftermath of the flood such was the damage inflicted.

Perhaps the most unusual (as opposed to harrowing) sight was of the training ship HMS President which, having been wrenched from its moorings on the Thames, was floating serenely along the road network and had to be tethered to Cleopatra’s Needle!

It was the last major flood to hit central London, as the Governments reaction to this disaster combined with its response to the catastrophic North Sea flood of 1953 meant legislation was implemented which finally resulted in the construction of the Thames Barrier in the 1970’s.

The Big Freeze of 1963

Winter 1962-63

The worst winter weather since 1739!

On 25th February 1963 a new record low temperature was recorded of -21°C.

A blizzard had hit and by the time it had finally blown itself out the BBC reported 200 main roads impassable and 95,000 miles of road snowbound!

It all started when an anticyclone from Scandinavia bought in bitterly cold air from Russia and dumped it on the UK!

Boxing Day 1962 saw the first heavy snow fall, and things sort of set themselves to get colder and whiter from then on!

There were 20-metre-high snow drifts in parts of the country and in Kent it was frozen for a mile out to sea!

Lakes, rivers and even waterfalls froze solid, and on The Thames the ice was thick enough to allow a motor rally to take place on its slippery surface!!!

Lady Falls, Afon Pryddin

Image: My London

Telephone lines were bought down, leaving some villages cut off from all communication with the outside world for days on end.

Farmers couldn’t reach their livestock to feed them, and many animals starved to death!

On Dartmoor 6000 animals received no food for 4 days until helicopters managed to drop in supplies!

As the mains water pipes were frozen, people had to take buckets and collect water from Road Tankers.

Windows froze shut in homes and there were common and widespread power cuts!

The Isle Of Man recorded wind speeds of up to 119 mph!

Some milkmen donned skis as a way of combating the exhausting and treacherous conditions and allow them to fulfill their rounds!

It seemed interminable, with most of the UK under snow continuously, but eventually, after three months of the coldest weather in living memory a thaw set in and the morning of 6th March 1963 dawned without frost, something people had nearly forgotten could happen!

Bone Dry Britain

Summer 1976

Pitsford Reservoir, Northants completely dried up.
Image: Getty Images

It was the warmest three months in living memory.

Fabulous blue skies every day.

The sunshine never seemed to end!

It should have been glorious.

However, an already dry summer in 1975 that led to the start of the drought in September that year developed to become the driest 16-month period in the UK for over 250 years.

Rivers, lakes, and reservoirs dried up. The soil began to crack. And water supplies were on the cusp of running out!

This bridge in the Llwyn-On Reservoir reappeared after having been submerged for 50 years.
Image: Getty Images

The government appointed our first ever Minister for Drought. Denis Howell. (More of him later)

Hosepipe bans were imposed, enforced by roving patrols which toured neighbourhoods on the hunt for anyone who dared to defy the moratorium!

Thousands of homes in East Anglia and Yorkshire lost their water supply, which was replaced by communal standpipes in the street!

And, as happened during the Bid Freeze of 1963, some people had to rely on Tankers and buckets for their water supplies!

The hottest day during this heatwave was at Cheltenham Essex, on July 3rd with 35.9°C (96.6°F) recorded, but over 30C (86F) was common throughout the land!

Around £500m worth of crops failed, driving food prices through the roof!

One of the 26 species native to Britain.

Image: Wikipedia

In Late July a plague of seven spotted ladybirds (the most common of the 26 species native to Britain) descended in huge swarms upon the habitations lying along the southern and eastern English coasts.

Entomologists estimated around 23.65 billion of the starving insects infested the beleaguered towns and cities!

The scorching weather lasted until late summer but coinciding with (the very day after) the appointment of the aforementioned Denis Howell, the weather broke in September with thunderstorms bringing heavy rain and flooding that continued throughout October.

Poor old Denis (later Baron Howell), the original Minister of Drought promptly gained the nickname “Minister of Rain”

Baron Howell
Image: The National Portrait Gallery

A Sting In The Tale

The Great Storm of 1987

“It was a dark and stormy night” as hurricane-force winds stormed through southeast England wreaking havoc of catastrophic proportions.

The violence was unbounded as gusts of up to 115mph were recorded on the Kent coast.

Home Secretary at the time, Douglas Hurd called it “the worst night since the Blitz”.

18 people died and an estimated 15 million trees were lost.

Former BBC weatherman Michael Fish became forever associated with the tragic event after he apparently told people “not to worry” during a forecast earlier in the day.

His own version of events differs somewhat from the popular narrative surrounding the controversy and you can hear him put his side of the story below:

https://www.netweather.tv/1987-great-storm

Subsequent meteorological research discovered a completely new weather phenomenon that was named the sting jet, a powerful 100mph plus wind capable of smashing everything in its path!

Mercifully the event took place at night which no doubt curtailed the death toll, but for those who had either (unbelievably) slept through it, or more likely sat trembling in their homes through the hours of screeching darkness, the dawn light brought scenes of unapparelled destruction to millions of eyes!

Sting jets derive their name from the resemblance to the sting in a scorpion’s tail which can be identified through satellite imagery when the end of a “cold conveyor” is marked by a hooked-shaped cloud with a pointed end.

Normally between 10 and 20km wide, a narrow channel of intense wind is the result, which means a more localized but significantly greater severity of damage ensuing where the epicentre is. The actual operating time frame for this inner cyclone is around 3 to 4 hours while the larger storm enveloping the sting can go on much longer with far less effect!

The fact that they are of such a small scale whilst producing such immense wind speeds also makes them extremely difficult to forecast.

One of the reasons for the colossal destruction was the fact that trees in the UK are used to coping with winds from the west (wise old things) and as they grow their roots and branches develop and adapt to combat this threat accordingly.

This storm treacherously attacked from a south easterly direction, hitting the trees on their weak side, hence the carnage!

An account from one who remembers it well vividly sums up the night of terror!

“Personally, I was awake for most of the night, as the roof parted company with our house, causing the loft hatch to blow into the loft and the wind literally rippled the plasterboard ceiling.

At one point I decided to head outside to check the damage, seeing roof tiles buried in the front garden to a depth of 20cm was eye-opening, and being hit by a leaf in the face was enough to send me back indoors pretty quickly.

My morning was the same as countless others the next day, bright blue skies, no wind, and utter devastation. The roof in the front garden, a neighbours oak tree had fallen and crushed a 20 metre wall, a garage reduced to a pile of bricks and very few trees more than house height still standing, luckily no one in the area was hurt overnight………

……the first pictures appeared in the press and aerial shots of felled trees had the look of a massive explosion having hit the area.

Looking back it's hard to describe just how much that night changed the landscape, the loss of so many ancient trees was, I think, the one overriding memory that sticks with me”

https://www.netweather.tv/1987-great-storm

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EXTREME WEATHER

The Great London Flood

The Big Freeze of 1963

Bone Dry Britain

A Sting In The Tale