020 CLIMATE CHANGE & OUR CORNER OF KENT
www.indexdigital.co.uk
From smog and storms to droughts and heat waves, we have experienced our fair share of weather extremes... here’s a round-up
© Arthur Shaw
THE WINTER OF 1947 As Britain was recovering from the effects of the Second World War, the country was hit with record amounts of snow. Six continuous weeks of snow led to thousands of people being cut off by snowdrifts. Roads and railways were blocked, miners couldn’t get to work and London had only six days’ worth of coal left. The armed forces were called upon to clear roads and railways of snowdrifts that were up to seven metres deep in places.
THE GREAT STORM OF 1953 Claiming the lives of 326 people, this was Britain’s worse peacetime disaster on record. A tidal surge – a combination of gale-force winds, low pressure and high tides – caused the North Sea to rise up to fi ve metres above its average level, which led to widespread fl ooding along the east coast of Britain, particularly south of Yorkshire. Some 30,000 people were evacuated, 1,600km of coastline damaged and 307 people in England and 19 people in Scotland died. The North Sea Flood led to an offi cial service for the forecast of coastal fl ooding and eventually the creation of the Thames Barrier.
© David Wright © Arpingstone
GREAT STORM OF 1987 “Apparently a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way... well if you’re watching, don’t worry, there isn’t!” Despite warnings on French news, BBC weatherman, Michael Fish, got it catastrophically wrong. The storm did indeed arrive, making landfall in Cornwall on the night of 15th October 1987 and hurricane-force winds blasted through the South East, devastating Kent, Sussex and Suffolk. Overall 15 million trees were felled by the high winds including six of the seven oak trees after which Sevenoaks is named.
STORM KATIE 2016 On the Sunday evening of the Bank Holiday weekend, 27th March 2016, Storm Katie tracked across southern Britain, moving out into the North Sea by midday on Easter Monday. At her peak, a wind speed of 106mph was recorded on the exposed Needles of Isle of Wight, but gusts of 70- 80mph along the coast and 50-70mph inland were more widely experienced. Across the south of England, more than 100,000 power outages were recorded. The strong wind left widespread damage in its path, with fl ights, ferries and trains cancelled.
THE SMOG OF 1952 As tons of soot belched out of factory smokestacks and chimneys into the skies over London in the 1950s, smog was common. But on 5th December 1952, a high-pressure weather system stalled over southern England causing a temperature inversion, in which a layer of warm air high above the surface trapped the stagnant, cold air at ground level. The fog became a dense blanket of yellowish brown toxic smog which remained for fi ve days. It was the worst air pollution crisis in European history leading to the premature deaths of more than 4,000 people.
THE SUMMER – AND DROUGHT – OF 1977 As the nation sunbathed through the warmest three months in living memory, Britain entered its worst drought for 250 years – but with the continued sunshine, rivers dried up, soil began to crack and water supplies were on the verge of running out. Around £500 million of crops failed that summer and food prices rose. Britain even appointed its fi rst ever Minister for Drought, Denis Howell. A couple of days later the drought came to an abrupt end when an August Bank Holiday deluge brought relief to the whole country.
HEAT WAVE OF 2003 The record for the hottest day in Britain (since records began in 1875) was broken on 10th August 2003, with Brogdale, near Faversham reporting the highest temperature of 38.5 °C. But such extreme temperatures can be deadly and by the end of the summer it had claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people in Britain, mostly through heat stroke or dehydration. The death toll across Europe was much worse, exceeding 30,000. Since then the government Heat-Health Watch system warns if the forecast for daytime temperatures is 30°C or above and 15°C at night.
© Ian Andrews
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