The Burns' Day Storm was an extremely violent windstorm that took place on 25–26 January 1990 over north-western Europe. It is one of the strongest European windstorms on record. This storm has received different names as there is no official list of such events in Europe. Starting on the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns, it caused widespread damage and hurricane-force winds over a wide area. The storm was responsible for 47 deaths, although figures have ranged from 89 to over 100 across Europe.
The strongest sustained winds recorded were between 70 and 75 mph, comparable to a weak Category 1 hurricane or Hurricane-force 12 on the Beaufort Scale. Strong gusts of up to 104 mph were reported, and it was these which caused the most extensive damage. The Great Storm of 1987 contained considerably higher wind speeds across every parameter. Both highest recorded sustained wind speeds of 86mph and highest gust of 135mph for example. Sustained periods of high gust speeds were also far higher in 1987. However, during the 1987 Storm many anemometers stopped recording due to power outages, breakages due to excess wind speeds and measurement maxima being exceeded. By 1990 the meteorological community had newer devices that remained independent of external power and could measure higher wind speeds. The general opinion is that wind speeds measured during the Burns Day Storm provide an accurate picture, while there is a tendency to downplay windspeeds from the 1987 storm due to the patchy data available.
Forecasting
The Burns' Day Storm of 1990 has been given as an example of when the Met Office "got the prediction right". The model forecast hinged on observations from two ships in the Atlantic near the developing storm the day before it reached the UK. During the day of the storm the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute increased warnings to force 11 and eventually to hurricane force 12. Research conducted by them showed that most of the general public were not able to understand the severity of the warnings. The storm has led to more awareness about the understanding of storminess among the public by the KNMI, who started a teletext page and the introduction of special warnings for extreme weather events in reaction to these findings.
Impacts
Casualties were much higher than those of the Great Storm of 1987, because the storm hit during the daytime. The storm caused extensive damage, with approximately 3 million trees downed, power disrupted to over 500,000 homes and severe flooding in England and West Germany. The storm cost insurers in the UK £3.37 billion, the UK's most expensive weather event to insurers. Most of the deaths were caused by collapsing buildings or falling debris. In one case in Sussex, a class of children was evacuated just minutes before their school building collapsed. Actor Gorden Kaye was also injured during the storm, when a plank of an advertising board was blown through his car's windscreen.
