Are the strongest winds usually in autumn?

Greenheart

Greenheart

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Maybe it's my selective memory, but to me the 1987 "hurricane" recalls returning from the theatre, a sea of brown leaves whirling around the car on twisty Sussex roads.

And I seem to remember the storm's sequel was also in autumn, two years later...

...maybe it's just that strong winds blow the previous season's dead leaves out of the ditches.

There are some pretty old and creaky trees overhanging my boat in the dinghy-park. And it's been breezy, lately. :(

I thought hurricanes in Hampshire hardly ever happened? Tornadoes, too?
 
dancrane said:
Maybe it's my selective memory, but to me the 1987 "hurricane" recalls returning from the theatre, a sea of brown leaves whirling around the car on twisty Sussex roads.

And I seem to remember the storm's sequel was also in autumn, two years later...

...maybe it's just that strong winds blow the previous season's dead leaves out of the ditches.

There are some pretty old and creaky trees overhanging my boat in the dinghy-park. And it's been breezy, lately. :(

I thought hurricanes in Hampshire hardly ever happened? Tornadoes, too?
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Well, hurricanes happen when the sea temperature is high, which in the northern hemisphere, is at the end of the summer.

In Wales, we used to call that "hydref".
For all you foreign invaders, that means "Autumn".
 
I've no facts and figures to back up my opinion but, living high up in the Pennines and doing my sailing in the Irish Sea, it definitely seems to me that the strongest winds come in Autumn, usually starting in the latter part of September. I read somewhere that the "equinoct1al gales" were just a myth of sailors' folklore but I'm not so sure.
 
alant said:
Rwyf fi'n galw e "Autumn", maer saeson dim yn deall 'hydref'.
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Yeah, nice thought to start a bit of regional chatter Alan, but I only got the Welsh for "thank you" from Google Translate...so I'm afraid we'd better stick to English. :o
 
Salty John said:
Hurricanes never happen in Hampshire. Extra-tropical storms might, and they can be just as nasty, but we don't get hurricanes, we aren't in the tropics.
I blogged about it here:http://saltyjohn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/hurricanes-not.html

We do tend to get storms in Autumn, natures way of clearing the trees of dead leaves.
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Spain is the same latitude as some of the States in the US that get hit by hurricanes, but the Tropical Revolving Storm's that spawn in the warm seas off NE Africa (Sea surface temperatures must be 82 degrees Fahrenheit (F) (28C) or warmer for tropical cyclone formation and sustenance) at the end of the Summer, head west & recurve as they go around the Azores High Pressure system (without which, Spain & N.Europe would be the target).

See more here http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/HURRICANE_RECIPE.html
 
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alant said:
:eek:
Not a native Brit then! :p;)
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Dunno about that - his ancestors may have got left behind :) - anyway, nice of him to go to that trouble to thank me in Welsh.

It is interesting to look at the monthly wind patterns around the UK at Windfinder, as it shows how our perceptions of the 'windiest' month/season will depend so much on where we live - or where we have spent most of our lives, perhaps. I haven't yet found any simple summary maps of mean & maximum speeds by month and location, however. But perhaps someone has ...
 
Pretty severe gale here in Oct 2002, my keelboat was blown over whilst laid up, quite a few yachts blown ashore on the river, lots of trees down including one in the dinghy park which crushed a couple of boats.

Nowhere near as bad as 1987 though.
 
I believe the Hayling Island/Gosport event the other day was a waterspout rather than a tornado. Still did damage on land as is dissipated.

My very large and solid barn in mid wales was blown down in mid Wales few years back. Solid consistent wind that collapsed the entire structure.

We are always wary of October!
 
The big storm in the Lake District in 2005 was on January 5th. Enormous amount of damage, winds of over 100mph, swathes of forest blown down.

I find it's windiest when the wind blows a lot.
 
The strongest winds in the Northern North Atlantic as a whole are January and February. Locally, the British Isles experience the strongest winds in January, followed by December with November coming in third.

This info is from ship reports and collated on pilot charts. Around 10% of reports in January are of sustained winds above F8

The wind you are most likely to experience in January is a westerly F5. On average 1 day in January is classified as calm.

You can download the charts on the link below. Big downloads but excellent info

http://msi.nga.mil/NGAPortal/MSI.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=msi_portal_page_62&pubCode=0003
 
Salty John said:
Hurricanes never happen in Hampshire. Extra-tropical storms might, and they can be just as nasty, but we don't get hurricanes, we aren't in the tropics.

es.
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Hurricanes happen when you have sustained winds over 64 knots - wherever you are, although they may called something else elsewhere.
 
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