October is traditionally the month when with the harvest safely gathered in and long dark nights ahead, we expect to experience the first of the true Autumn gales. September can hint at this with blustery winds and heavy rain but by mid October we may well experience the first true autumn gale with the leaves really coming off the trees and lying in deep drifts.

 

Whilst one of the infamous October storms occurred on 16th- 17th October 1987, with the severe storm that crossed the south east of the England, several in more recent years have caused local damage.

 

The storm of the 27th October 2004 is one such example, for which the event itself did full justice to the warnings of severe weather that were issued by various agencies, up to five days beforehand. This also ran up from Biscay deepening rapidly, like the 1987 storm, but there the similarities end. 

 

The 26th October was actually a pleasant sunny Autumnal day for most parts, with a weak ridge of high pressure lying across the UK. However a relatively innocuous looking area of low pressure located in the Azores was already moving slowly east-north-eastwards towards the south west. By midday it had deepened to 982mb and in the following twelve hours fell nearly another 30mb to be an intense low of 953mb in the Bay of Biscay by midnight on the 27th. By mid morning on the 27th the low, centred just to the west of Brittany, was estimated to have a central pressure around 949mb and as such was one of the deepest depressions in living memory to lie below 50 degrees north in October.

 

The strongest winds recorded were 70 mph at Llanbedr (W Wales) and 68mph at Berry Head coastguard station (S Devon). However to the south across the Channel parts of NW France saw gusts to near 80mph, for example Quessant (Brittany) reached 78mph.

 

It was the far south west of England and especially Cornwall that bore the brunt of the bad weather. The combination of strong winds and heavy rainfall coincided with the spring tides. It caused a great deal of flooding in the area as a result. Damage included the collapse of the sea wall at Penzance, Newlyn and Lamorna Cove. The area around Dawlish (S Devon) was also badly affected as sea washed over the railway line, trapping a train which lost power for three hours. Ferry services along the Irish sea were delayed and parts of the Irish coast were also badly affected.

 

Cork airport was closed as thousands of homes lost power and the River lee through Cork burst its banks flooding south western parts of Cork to depth of as high as 10ft.

 

In fact the situation was compounded when the low pressure then sat across the area for the next three days. Although it slowly filled up it meant that areas of heavy rain and gusty winds affected parts of Cornwall and caused more flooding to parts of Falmouth, Flushing and Cawsand (S Cornwall). Sadly on Friday a 50ft fin whale was also washed up on the beach at St Mary Bay near Brixham, Devon; another casualty of the severe weather.