The Storms of January 1993
November 10, 2023
By Paul Homewood
January 1993 was another extremely wind month in the 1990s.
The Met Office report says it all:
The simple fact that Scotland had 25 days on the trot with winds of at least 70 kts, 80 mph, is astonishing enough in itself. So was the fact that at least 17 people died because of storms on five separate days.
And 82 kts, which is 94 mph, at Leeds is remarkable for an inland location.
According to one analysis:
https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wea.2097
And the Met Office described it as a significant weather event:
We certainly have not seen anything approaching the storminess of 1987, 1990 and 1993 in the last decade.
8 Comments
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Those windy years created the impression that windmills were the way forward for electrical generation.
But in those sort of wind speeds many (if not most) turbines would shut down to avoid damage! And what on earth possesses people to go out in canoes & dingies in 70kt winds?
Because they’re potty?
This is an episode where “the rest of the story” is needed.
A person has trouble moving forward on two feet in wind like that.
One has to shuffle {short sliding steps, without or barely lifting the feet} or get blown over. Why I know isn’t important, but I do know.
And I have been blown about some while on a lake in a canoe. Nothing serious, but not fun either.
Though I was born and raised in Hull (someone has to be!) I spent my teenage years in Folkestone, Kent.
These images (a few years after I lived there) were typical of the time.
http://archive.sandgatesociety.com/113
This rarely happens now…lack of climate change? Or more likely AI as in anthropogenic intervention.
I remember watching, in Sussex, a large Cedar of Lebanon standing proud against the worst of those January 1993 winds – until it simply keeled over. The roots and soil which came up out of the ground formed a bole ten feet high.
That was some weather!
Did you notice the registration on the car on the photo labelled ‘Driving or Parking Unsure’ – HLP
The white end terrace house in that photo was were a schoolfriend of mine lived. Unsurprisingly it had shutters on the outside windows. The sound when waves hit was like sitting inside a big drum with a giant banging it. Amazingly the place never flooded inside!