great storm

Winds of hurricane force (Force 12 on the Beaufort scale) on the night of 15/16 October 1987, in which many millions of trees were uprooted or broken in southern England and north-west France. There were 18 fatalities in England, four in France. The term ‘hurricane’ is usually used to mean a kind of tropical cyclone.

This definition is abridged from A – Z of tree terms: A companion to British arboriculture.
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