Storms
A gale is defined as a period during which the mean wind speed at the standard measuring height of 10 m above ground attains a value of 34 knots (39 miles per hour, 17.2 metres per second) or more over at least 10 minutes. The strongest depressions are usually at their most intense over the open Atlantic Ocean; thus at low altitudes gales occur most frequently on the exposed western and northern coasts of Britain. In England, because of the protection afforded by Ireland, the most exposed coasts are those of Devon and Cornwall, and here there are about 15 days of gale a year. Inland, the number of days decreases to fewer than five days a year.
Severe storms can be a hazard, causing extensive damage to commercial and domestic property, as well as laying bare areas of woodland. The storm in October 1987 cost the insurance industry around £1.2 billion, and 15 million rees were uprooted.
A great gale was reported in Somerset in November 1703. An eyewitness said: "It is a night such to be remembered of all the peoples in England in their generation. It blew such a wind it seemed likely to threaten to blow the land into the sea and lift the sea into the land." He goes on to describe how church towers were torn down, roofs were blown off and whole walls came crashing down. It was about this time that the top of the spire of Porlock church was blown off. During the same 'Great Storm' hundreds of ships in the English Channel and North Sea were destroyed, and an estimated 8,000-10,000 people were killed, many of them sailors.Great oaks in Nettlecombe and Dunster Parks destined as timber for the Navy were blown down. The thatch was blown from many roofs and whole buildings were blown down. The area ran out of reed for thatching and salt ruined coastal grazing areas.
A great storm accompanied the freeze-up of January 1881. Nationally there were many shipwreks with accompanying loss of life. Three ships were wrecked on the Exmoor coast but, through some heroic rescues, all sailors were saved. The West Somerset free Press reported: "It is a matter of congratulation that although so many lives were lost, both on land and sea, in this fearful storm, yet in the Exmoor district, so far as we have heard, there has not been a single death, either through the violence of the storm or through exposure." The most famous lifeboat rescues on Exmoor were in gales in January and November 1899. The first was when the Watchet lifeboat was sent to the rescue of a Minehead fishing boat and the second the famous 'overland launch' when the Lynmouth lifeboat was hauled to Porlock Weir to be launched to attend a vessel drifting towards Porlock Bay.
One of the most devastating sea storms recorded was in December 1900, when Watchet harbour and many of the ships in it were wrecked.
Perhaps the most severe storm in living memory on Exmoor came in December 1981.A depression gave a blizzard in the West Country with heavy snow and wind speeds in excess of 95 mph on the 13th. The anemometer (wind guage) at the Foreland lighthouse went completely off the recording scale. Sustained winds of over 74 mph are classified as hurricanes. The effects were somewhat localised and particularly severe on the coast. Woodlands on the western side of the Heddon valley were completely devastated, as were those at Lee Abbey. Winds backed up the tide to create a storm surge in the Bristol Channel, with extensive flooding.
The 1987 storm affected Exmoor, but perhaps not as badly as the one in 1981. The landscape changed over night and large patches of woodland were blown down.The Burns' Day storm of January 1990 caused considerable damage to buildings in the West Country and overturned vehicles as high winds were widespread. Some stations had gusts that were the highest in the period from 1971 to 2000 and included 84 knots at Plymouth, where the maximum hourly mean speed was 60 knots.