as well as celsius. nothing but bad news. if anything, trouble with the wind today, as you might say. and then, of course there was this... earlier on today, a woman apparently rang the bbc and said there was a hurricane on the way. well, if you are watching, don't worry, there isn't... i've become forever linked with what followed. the worst storms for hundreds of years hit the south of england early this morning, killing a dozen people and bringing the whole south—east to a halt. gales of more than 100 mph smashed buildings and caused millions of pounds worth of damage. there was no warning. the weathermen were caught with their forecast down. in fact, 18 people lost their lives in what was the biggest storm to hit britain since 1703. and there was a wall of cloud approaching from the west. we could see it coming towards us. the waves were going over the minibuses. absolutely terrifying. it remains the most talked—about weather event in a generation. this is a photograph showing what looks like somebody has emptied a box of matches... took weeks to clear it all up. for the past 30 years, i have taken the flak for getting this forecast wrong. so i'm on a myth—busting mission to try to set the record straight. if you can't forecast the worst storm in several centuries three hours before they happen, what are you doing? they're completely different weather systems. they don't occur in the uk. the story has been told. you can't go back and explain it. the message did not get across the night before. thank you, not too pretty a picture, as a matter of fact. lots of snow in eastern parts... when i started at the bbc, things were very different. there were no computer graphics and no weather satellites. fairly thundery with some... let's do it again. behind me, another area of low pressure and that will trouble things... by 1987, dodgy suits were a thing of the past and some basic satellite images were giving us a taste of the future. disorganised at the moment... back then we relied mainly on weather balloons and ships out in the atlantic to tell us what was heading our way. # here comes the rain again... which leads me on to myth number one — that we had no idea that any sort of storm was coming. the truth is that we did know stormy weather was out there but didn't think it was coming our way. even a week before there were signs of bad weather in the atlantic. it was so bad the shipping we normally relied on for weather observations cleared out of the area. meaning we had even less data coming in and the data we did have was fed into the computer. the models ran a few days before the storm showed it tracking east across france. we were concerned about yet more rain after recent flooding. but by thursday morning, there was only very light wind over most of the uk. and no sign the depression brewing in the bay of biscay would come our way. nothing to stop the class of 1987 from going to dorset on a geography field trip. the waves have cut through the limestone and formed this very small hole. he was head of geography and he spotted something coming towards the south coast well before us experts at the met office. we were at the southern end of the bank when itjoins portland. we were surveying the beach. and the sky was just incredible. paul was also a keen—eyed geography teacher and filmed this footage. the air was different to anything i've experienced. it was so full of moisture. it was warm and thick. there was a wall of cloud approaching from the west. we could see it coming towards us, but we did not know. we did not know what was going to happen that night. we had no idea. we knew it was windy because as the kids were doing their geography fieldwork, they were getting knocked over. while the geography class was discussing onshore drift, i was giving my fateful forecast, just after the lunchtime news. good afternoon. earlier today, apparently a woman rang the bbc and said she heard a hurricane was on the way. if you are watching, don't worry, there isn't... time to bust myth number two, that i did not forecast high wind. having said that, the weather will become very windy but most of the strong wind incidentally will be over spain and across into france. but a vicious—looking area of low pressure on the doorstep, round about the brittany area... there we go! "a vicious—looking area of low pressu re". bringing if nothing else a lot of rain with it. but what i did not know was the storm was changing direction and heading straight for dorset. as these waves come through the limestone... after a very windy afternoon on the beach the class of ‘87 went back to the caravan site. we watched the news and weather. we assumed it was going to be a windy night, but nothing too extreme. and the weather forecast the geography teachers watched was not me at all. bill giles was on duty that evening, so bang goes myth number three. and his forecast was no better than mine. that is what the situation was like earlier this evening. it is associated with a quite deep low—pressure area. some days ago we thought it was coming further west, bringing strong wind right across the country, but now it looks like most of the strong wind will stay away, but it is still going to be breezy up through the channel and on the eastern side of the country. breezy up the channel? worthing's class of ‘87 would soon learn both forecasts were well off the mark! i've come along the coast to worthing beach to meet up with the teachers and some of the now grown—up pupils. it turned out to be a really windy night, didn't it? a crazy night. when the caravan started to move from their supports, we thought, we cannot risk that. the caravan i was in literally leapt up in the air and started rolling down the hill. before it got very far i was out the door and knocking on eve rybody's caravan door. we put 72 kids into two 15—seat minibuses and drove down to the bottom of the hill. i gather you knew about it before i did because you were chatting with your friends when you should've been in bed. we realised it was getting windy. we looked out the window of the caravan we were staying in and we saw one of the caravans go over. i think she ran to get you teachers. you probably knew already and i ran down to the caravan and looked inside. it was pitch black. i remember that feeling of, my god, is there anybody in there? karen, i believe you were a pupil at the time. what were your experiences? i was 15. we were in the minibuses, very squashed in and a lot of debris was flying around. from one of the roofs, a piece of roof came off and hit the side of the minibus we were in. we alljumped out of our skin. it was terrifying. martin, what do you remember of the evening and night? i remember when we were being evacuated we had to drive along the coastal front. the waves were going over the minibuses and the teacher driving my minibus said, "i cannot see the other minibus" and i said, "just go through it!" by sam on friday the 16th, the storm cut a swathe through dorset, hampshire and the isle of wight. then it hit london and the south—east. the worst of the storm tracked through essex and norfolk. by mid—morning, it was heading out into the north sea. across much of the south and east of england, people were waking up to entirely new landscapes. reporter: the advice this morning very much one of taking great care. do not attempt to travel into work. in swanage, the field trip survivors were sifting through what was left of the caravans for their belongings. music "cruel summer" by bananarama myjourney took me on the easterly route of the storm. it was an easy trip, but almost unthinkable 30years ago. 15 million trees were uprooted overnight. and the south was at a standstill. # it's a cruel... # cruel... # cruel summer... next stop is wakehurst in west sussex. a country estate now home to the millennium seed bank. dave has lived and worked here all his life. he woke up to a scene of devastation. how many trees did you think you lost? roughly 20,000. 20,000? the garden out there you can see behind me, there was nothing there. there was one thing there, one sycamore tree left. everything else was flat. david and his team got busy with their chainsaws. you're acting as part of the emergency services. it was interesting. every time we thought we had something cleared we passed it onto the police, another one would come up. we brought troops in by helicopter to try to help people. it took weeks to clear it all up. the formal gardens of this 16th century manor house, created over hundreds of years, were wiped out. in a few hours. i believe in fact good came out of it. yes, it was ironic, really. trees we would not have dared take down blew down and it gave us a wonderful opportunity to open up the vistas and put in new planting. 30 years later and even in a downpour, the gardens are looking pretty splendid. music still following the track of the storm, i am now heading to a small town in kent where losing trees did not go down so well. i am here to meet the people of sevenoaks who remember the infamous night only too well. # the wind doesn't have a name... former mayor maurice short was a councillor 30 years ago and on the night of the great storm he raced here to the site of the symbolic seven oak trees of sevenoaks and he found six were uprooted. and we got up here and the sign of devastation... you have got a paper of the day. 0r days later. amazing, isn't it? i gather one survived. 0ne survived in the corner. obviously the biggest one. so we are now eight 0aks. eight 0aks? the seven new ones were planted by local schoolchildren. # i can't stand the rain... they are thriving. the lone survivor might make them eight 0aks, but after eight centuries there are no plans to change the name of the town. the trees seem to be doing quite well at the moment. i got a lot of stick at the time from the people of sevenoaks. but i think with a bit of luck they have forgiven me by now. back then, bob was the editor of the sevenoaks chronicle. he wanted to hire a plane to capture this moment in history on camera. my bosses told me, they said we cannot afford it. so i paid for the aeroplane myself, thinking i would get the money back from them but i never did. and you got above kent? we flew from the hill. bob got a pilot to take him up in the only serviceable aircraft. this is a photograph showing what looks like somebody has emptied a box of match sticks, but in fact they are oak trees. later bob published a book of his photographs. it became a bestseller, paying for hundreds of trees be repla nted as well as a swimming pool, a present from bob to his wife. some present. shall we try? after you! # thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening... # galileo... 30 years ago, people wanted to know why the weather forecasters had not seen this coming. a bleary—eyed ian mccaskill took the first hit. you chaps were a fat lot of good last night. we have been forecasting high wind relentlessly since sunday. i admit that we were not forecasting hurricane—force wind. that's what we got. and it was not long before the media latched on to my unfortunate choice of words. apparently, a woman rang the bbc and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way. if you are watching, don't worry, there isn't... if i had a penny for every time that video has been shown, i would be a multimillionaire by now. apparently a woman rang the bbc... what the world and his wife wanted to know was who was that mystery woman? time for myth number four. when michael fish came on the tv, he said a lady had phoned in but not to be so daft. that was my mother doris. she's 94 now. that was of course a spoof. but over the years various papers claim to have tracked down the mystery caller. more about that particular myth later. there is no doubt my gaffe has provided rich pickings for comedians. remember the three ps. poise, purpose and porpoise. cousin to the dolphin and lucky weather charm. the comedian russell lane is touring with his one—man show, hurricane michael. about me and our national obsession with the weather. it is like it's a family member. some mornings you get up and it's raining again. and you are like... how could you?! it's the sixth day running. sleight of hand on heart, increasing in intensity to sporadic outbursts of jazz hands. the ‘80s was riven with conspiracy theory. one of the stories doing the rounds was the storm was due to a russian weather machine that they think created, you know, the commies, the pinkos. must‘ve been a good machine, because the wind speed here in shoreham was the highest recorded, at 115 mph. and if you think that's a tall story... it was two days before my wedding and we woke up with the air raid siren going! we thought the world had come to an end! i had this extreme urge, desire to go out and fly. in the wind. i didn't. you see? russian mind control. and time to bust myth number five. i said there was not a hurricane on the way. then hours later, parts of britain were buffeted by the worst storm in several hundred years. i've come to new broadcasting house in london, home to the bbc‘s weather centre. was it really a hurricane? i am meeting someone who should know the answer. the bbc weatherman, tomasz schafernaker, a mere eight years old in 1987, now a hurricane expert back from florida. hurricane irma holds the record for managing to sustain a category five longer than any other hurricane in recorded history. that is a hurricane. back in the relative calm of the weather centre, i am hoping tom can help out here. 0k, tom. please, if i give you ten quid, will you back me up? mine was not a hurricane. mine wasn't. yours was. absolutely right. it was not a hurricane. hurricanes are completely different weather systems. they do not occur here in the uk. they have to happen over tropical waters. but the one in 1987 still produced hurricane—strength winds. you don't have to have a hurricane to make hurricane—force wind, if you know what i mean. it can still be nasty. thank you, tom. more from you later. in 1987, there was another hurricane threatening florida. that's what we expect, floyd. taking a turn to the right. hurricane floyd circled the gulf of mexico just days before the great storm here. that brings us nicely back to myth number four, the woman who rang the bbc. the great michael fish! give him a round of applause! after the show we did a q&a session. it is a chance to set the record straight. there was no woman caller. i made her up. the studio cameraman told me his mum was worrying about flying out to the caribbean. and she was asking about a hurricane that was rampaging at that time from the florida coast. she was going on holiday and wondering if it was going to affect her. i assured her most certainly it was not. and it happened to be in the back of my mind as we did the live broadcast. and unfortunately this phrase slipped out. slightly unfortunate! good timing, michael. applause we're all laughing now. but at the time, when we were on telly day in and day out us weather forecasters were employed by the met office. and they discouraged us from talking to the media about what happened. even though there were serious questions to answer. even as the repairs get under way, people are asking, why were we not warned? did the weathermen not know there was a fierce storm on its way? time to answer the question now at the swanky met 0ffice headquarters in exeter. i'm meeting my former colleague, a senior forecaster at the time, but not actually on shift on the day of my infamous appearance. 30 years is a long time. it seems like yesterday. we have asked to see old satellite photographs, hand—written reports from back then. you probably even wrote in it. to see if any signs were missed all those years ago. you talk a lot about heavy rain. do you remember that there was flooding rather than the actual winds? bill giles in his presentation did not mention the wind at all. he said "breezy up the channel". in fairness flooding was very high profile in india. —— in fairness flooding was very high profile in the media. there were some warnings. for instance on tuesday the 13th, "storm—force winds thursday "and friday and on wednesday, we have an angry spell coming." for those days, even back in 1987, that is quite emotive. you would not expect it to be used. and what is disappointing is that message from sunday was lost. the great storm is well—known. the story has been told. you cannot go back and explain. because in the end, the message did not come across the night before. but nowadays, i would like to think that angry spell at the history and the memory of that would come across. these days they might issue a warning five days in advance and continue rolling right through to the period so there would be no getting away from it. absolutely. ‘87 became a turning point. these days, computers can crunch 200 billion of sets of observations a day. the results are sent to the bbc forecasters like tom to translate into inaccurate forecast. —— to translate into an accurate forecast. the wind certainly rattled the windows last night. one of the things we heavily rely upon is running the computer model multiple times, so we get lots of different results. the reason why we do that is because we feed the computer with like the 1987 one these days. you would see it on the satellite image. there is a very clear marker. called a sting jet. you can see from space a particular cloud feature. they are only very short—lived and often do not happen in london and certainly not often do they strike big cities. they usually happen off the north—west coast of scotland. they are more understood now and i think back in 1987, even if you saw it on a satellite image, you would not know what it was. because it was not understood. the sting jet when i was at university was not that well known. # tell me why... back in the archives at the met office... was there a sting in the tail on those early satellite images? look at that zone. that is what they call the "sting jet". this is a very powerful wind. this is three o'clock in the morning. i think the storm is at its peak. and this, these powerful winds with wind speed of up to 50, 60 mph. literally battering the south coast. # tell me why... and if we go back and look at bill's forecast... the satellite picture shows the british isles is underneath there somewhere... there is the sting jet, staring us in the face. the important thing at the time, nobody discussed it when it came to the great storm. it is only with hindsight going forward that this theory has developed. round about the 19905 and 20005, sometime after the wind went back and they analysed the great storm and found it fitted well with this dynamic, the scientific term called the sting jet. there you go. it wasn't the russians. it wasn't me. and i can't even blame bill any more. not again! it was the sting jet what done it and if another one comes along i am confident the next time around we'll all get plenty of warning. at long last, my mission is complete. i won't be needing this any more. in fact, i feel an area of high pressure coming on. yes, believe it or not. dry, sunny spells, light winds and very warm indeed. what more can you ask for? # why does it always rain on me? clouds rumble oh, no... # even with the sun is shining, i can't afford the lightning # where do the blue skies go? hello. storm brian has made its presence felt across southern and western parts of the british isles. stormy skies overhead for the weather watcher in south wales. this view from space is quite dramatic. you can see a swirl of cloud working its way east so far today. the stronger wind has been to the south of the area of low pressure. we continue to see strong wind in southern areas in the evening but also picking up across part of north wales, north—west england, northern ireland and south—west scotland. could be gales for a time. if you are heading out in the evening, these arrows show the strongest wind gusts we are expecting, 40—50 mph across part of the south coast. in wales and north—west england a lot of showers piling in from the west. some of these are heavy. we could see some localised surface water issues. wind picking up a northern ireland and south—west scotland but a lwa ys ireland and south—west scotland but always lighter wind in the south—east of scotland. more dry in the evening. we keep the strong wind across western areas overnight in particular. heavy downpours of rain as the risk of surface water continues. certainly poor travelling conditions and not a mild night either. temperatures and 9—11d. going into sunday, things are slowly but surely calming down. the low pressure storm brian drifting to the north—east. the isobars are beginning to open out a little bit. the wind will gradually become lighter. we start with a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain but from the west it should break up to reveal sunshine. a scattering of showers still in the west. not particularly warm either with top temperatures of 12—14d. looking further ahead into monday, it looks like we will see outbreaks of rain splashing in from the west. very patchy and drizzling rain with murky conditions and rain on the south coast as well. in the far east and out west to northern ireland, sunshine at times. 13—16d and for the week ahead, looking mixed. some spells of rain and breezy but not windy as it has been. part of the south looks likely to warm up and sunspots could get into the 20s. —— some spots. this is bbc news. the headlines: a huge demonstration in barcelona after spanish prime minister mariano rajoy announced steps to remove the current administration in catalonia. i'm in barcelona where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in defiance of madrid's decision. explosives experts were called to the sellafield nuclear plant in cumbria after an audit of chemicals stored in a laboratory. drivers could soon be allowed to pass through sections of motorway roadworks at higher speeds. storm brian hits the uk. there are gale—force winds and high seas — but less fierce than predicted. and at 430 foreign correspondents currently posted to london

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