Met Office has learnt 'many lessons' since Great Storm of 1987

The Met Office says it has learnt valuable lessons and improved forecasting on the 25th anniversary of the Great Storm that wreaked havoc across Britain.

It left 18 people dead and caused morethan £1 billion of damage, sparking questions as to why there had been no warnings of what was to come.

Yet just hours before, BBC forecaster Michael Fish had said: "Earlier on today apparently a woman rang the BBC and said she had heard that there was a hurricane on the way.

"Well if you are watching, don't worry there isn't."

The Met Office and other European forecasters had failed to predict the intensity of the storm, and it was clear forecasting capabilities at the time couldn't always predict such events.

Forecasters at the Exeter-based organisation say this was a catalyst for a programme of investment and improvement in the science, technology and communication of forecasting which has transformed the way the UK responds to severe weather.

Ewen McCallum, Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, said: "It sometimes takes your darkest hour for a professional organisation to learn lessons and we have learnt many lessons. The science, technology and the way we communicate has come a long way since 1987 - our whole game has been upped."

In the wake of the Great Storm the Met Office set up the National Severe Weather Warning Services (NSWWS) to provide a co-ordinated way of delivering warnings to government, emergency responders and the public.

As part of this, staff work closely with a host of organisations to make sure they have all the latest information on the weather so they can take appropriate action to safeguard life and property.

It claims all of these changes have seen a big improvement in forecasting accuracy - the four day forecasts today are as accurate as the one day forecasts were in 1987. This means that forecasters can now provide more advance warning when severe weather is expected to affect the UK.

Picture: Aftermath of the 1987 Great Storm by David Wright <div xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/28/37/283716_4aadda4a.jpg"><span property="dct:title">Aftermath of the 1987 "Great Storm"</span> (<a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName" href="http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/1782">David Wright</a>) / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></div>