Arwen had a lot in common with the Great Storm of ’87
WHEN, in last week’s column, I suggested Storm Arwen might be blowing the last autumn leaves off the branches, I did not appreciate quite how many trees it would bring down with them. Tens of thousands have been toppled by it across the north. In many parts power lines were felled with them and, a week on, many are yet to be fixed.
In Bodnant Gardens, Conwy, more than 50 rare, centuries-old trees were uprooted in what staff on the National Trust estate described as the worst storm in 25 years. Meanwhile, in Kielder Forest trees were toppled like tenpins as 98mph winds barrelled over the Northumberland hills.
Already three people have been killed by falling trees across Britain as a result of the storm.
While the impact of Storm Arwen has garnered far less publicity than the Great Storm of 1987 the scale of the destruction of both storms has been compared. Back then gales reaching 115mph downed 15 million trees and left 18 people dead, along with a repair bill of £2bn.
It is worth remembering that in nature, at least, the legacy of such storms is often not as devastating as it at first appears.
In 1987, newly-created glades enabled dormant seeds to burst into life and clematis, honeysuckle and heather emerged for the first time in a century. At Toys Hill in Kent, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, for example, the woodlark and nightjar population increased, alongside that of little owls and tawny owls.
Elsewhere, beetle populations thrived on rotting tree trunks. A few years ago I visited the ancient woodland of Ashenbank Wood in Kent where the branches of fallen chestnuts had grown roots and turned into trees.
Of course, there is another similarity with the storm of 30 years ago famously missed by weatherman Michael Fish: the true severity of storms is a very tricky thing to predict.