Damage caused during the Hurricane in Maidstone

It was a night that anyone now aged over 30 will never forget.

The Great Storm of 1987 - as it was quickly dubbed - occurred on the night of 15 to 16 October 1987, when an exceptionally brutal weather system caused winds to hit much of southern England and northern France.

It was the worst storm to hit England since the Great Storm of 1703 (284 years earlier) and was responsible for the deaths of at least 22 people in England and France combined (18 in England, at least four in France).

Hurricane force winds battered Kent and the south east in what weather experts described as a ‘once in 200 years storm’.

Most of the storm damage occurred between 2am and 6am on the morning of October 16, with winds reaching up to 110mph.

Fifteen million trees were lost across the area affected by the storm.

National Trust properties in Kent at Chartwell (Sir Winson Churchill’s former home), Emmetts Garden and Toys Hill were in the eye of the storm, with thousands of trees uprooted or badly damaged.

The National Trust Trees and Gardens Storm Disaster Appeal raised more than £3m in the six weeks after the storm, with the money used for replanting and restoration work.

The Great Storm carved a swathe across southern England from the Wash to the River Test.

Many residents cowered in their beds as the storm passed over their homes and then woke to scenes of devastation including fallen trees, broken fences, damaged cars and slates stripped from roofs.

Many rail lines had to be closed because of fallen trees and wrecked power lines.

Seeboard working in Chatham to restore power after damage caused during the Hurricane

Repairs cost billions of pounds and took months, if not years, to complete.

So what caused it?

Well, a cold front in the Bay of Biscay was given immense power by the collision of warm air from Africa meeting cold air from the Arctic.

The storm caused great damage across Kent

Where the two air masses met, a frontal system developed, with the warm air being forced to rise above the cold, creating a drop in air pressure.

Large quantities of water vapour condensed to cloud providing an enormous release of heat energy, driving the winds of the storm and deepening the central pressure.

The deep depression veered north along the north coast of Cornwall and Devon, across the central southern midlands to the Wash, catching the weather forecasters by surprise.