Floyds can be extremely dangerous. It was a Floyd, you may remember, that caused almost the entire population of a large sector of the eastern seaboard of the United States to retreat westwards several weeks ago, following in the footsteps of their ancestors to avoid hurricane-strength winds and lethal floods. As it happened, the dangers on that occasion were exaggerated.
Two other Hurricane Floyds, those of 1993 and 1981, made little impact on the world's consciousness, but Floyd of 1987 spawned a monster that is remembered vividly in the south of England. It was the progenitor of the "October Storm".
Long after the winds of a Caribbean hurricane have died away, a quantity of unusually warm and moist air frequently survives, concentrated into a relatively small region of the upper atmosphere to be carried northeastwards to the mid-Atlantic. If this warm, humid air is absorbed into the circulation of an ordinary North Atlantic depression, it may add enough energy to cause a dramatic intensification of the low.
This was precisely what happened in October 1987. Hurricane Floyd had blazed its way across the Caribbean some time previously - and dissipated. But in due course, its residue joined a depression which by noon on October 15th had reached a position just to the west of the Bay of Biscay. As it moved north-eastwards towards the English Channel, forecasters in Britain were not unduly worried; the depression was not unusually vigorous, and although gale force winds seemed likely, there seemed to be little cause for panic.
But the depression deepened explosively during the evening of October 15th, and by the time it reached the English coast at Plymouth shortly after midnight, it had become the deepest October low for more than 150 years. During the following six hours, gusts to over 100 mph were commonplace. Eighteen people died, 15 million trees were blown down, and thousands of roads and railway lines were blocked by debris. Virtually all of southeast England was deprived of electricity.
Apart from its remarkable ferocity and the damage caused, the "October Storm" is chiefly remembered for an unfortunate remark by TV weathercaster Michael Fish. "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she'd heard that there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you're watching, don't worry." He was right, of course; the low was not a hurricane. But the ghost of Floyd ensured that it became a storm of comparable proportions in terms of the strength of its associated winds, and in the aftermath of the destruction, the British public had little sympathy for Mr Fish's fine distinctions.