Don’t worry, there isn’t going to be a hurricane…
Those now-infamous words, spoken by BBC weatherman Michael Fish on the evening of October 15th 1987, have become forever linked with one of the most violent and destructive storms ever to strike southern Britain.
In the early hours of October 16th, a powerful extratropical cyclone barrelled across the South of England, unleashing hurricane-force winds, toppling trees, flattening buildings, and cutting power to millions. It was the worst storm to hit the region in almost 300 years.
The Storm’s Sudden Arrival
Meteorologists had been tracking a developing weather system over the Bay of Biscay, but no one predicted just how intense it would become. As the low-pressure system deepened rapidly, wind speeds rose to unprecedented levels. Gusts reached 100 mph (160 km/h) in some exposed areas like Shoreham, Sevenoaks, and parts of the Sussex coast.
The storm struck overnight, giving residents little time to prepare. In Pulborough, I was 18 years old and still living with my parents in a three-storey house on Stopham Road, which backed onto the River Arun and looked out across to the South Downs. My brother and I shared the top floor, and his room had the best view of the Downs. I remember waking up and going into his room to watch the chaos unfold. He, unbelievably, slept through the whole thing. To this day, he could probably sleep through a war.
I watched glass panes from our greenhouse fly into the garden, and roof tiles torn from neighbouring houses. The floodplain between the river and the Downs, usually underwater each winter, became a giant mirror, reflecting the lightning into a spectacular display. I even witnessed what I thought at the time was a thunderball—a streak of lightning that appeared to strike one end of the Downs and flash across to the other. I’ve never seen anything like it since. Years later, I learned that thunderballs are typically small plasma spheres, so what I saw was probably an optical illusion created by the flooded land and the silhouette of the Downs.
By dawn, the storm had caused chaos from Cornwall to Kent and as far north as Norfolk.
Widespread Destruction
- 15 million trees were lost—many snapped in half or uprooted completely. Entire woodlands disappeared overnight.
- Electricity and phone lines were down across the South East, leaving hundreds of thousands without communication or heating.
- Roads and railways were blocked, and schools were closed.
- Tragically, 18 people lost their lives in the UK due to the storm.
The financial cost was estimated at over £1 billion in today’s money.
Aftermath in the South East – roads blocked and power lines down across counties.
The Storm's Legacy
Despite its ferocity, the Great Storm brought about significant changes in UK meteorology. The Met Office overhauled its forecasting systems and communication strategies to ensure better public warnings in future.
Michael Fish became an unwitting pop culture figure, often unfairly blamed for the lack of warning. In truth, forecasting tools at the time simply weren’t advanced enough to anticipate the storm’s explosive development.
“No hurricane coming...” – a moment that entered British folklore.
Surreal Aftermath
The morning after, I got into my old beat-up Ford Transit van and headed off to work in Horsham, about 15 miles away. I was in a band at the time, and the van was mainly for gigs and rehearsals, so I didn’t mind scraping past the fallen trees around Five Oaks to get through. I made it into Allistons, a local furniture shop where I worked. Only one of my bosses made it in—he lived next door. With no other staff and clearly no customers on the way, he sent me across the road to hire a VHS from the local garage. We spent the morning watching a film in the shop. I don’t even remember if I went home early or not. What I do remember is not quite grasping the enormity of what had happened until I got home that evening and saw the news.
We were lucky. Apart from a few smashed greenhouse panes and a couple more scars on the Transit, we escaped mostly unscathed.
Want to see how your hometown fared during the Great Storm of 1987? Check out our Historic Weather Lookup Tool to explore weather data across decades.
Tags: Historic Weather, UK Storms, 1987 Storm, South of England, Michael Fish