From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

One of the worst storms to hit Scotland in living memory was what they called Hurricane Low Q, which 50 dead in its wake in January 1968.

It was not, and had not been, a hurricane of course, as the time of year might indicate!

Here’s an account of it written in 2019:

The 1968 storm which reeked absolute devastation and chaos on Scotland focused its destruction particularly on the City of Glasgow. It claimed 20 lives immediately – nine of which in Glasgow – and a further 30 lives of the men repairing the damage in the aftermath. Often denoted as ‘The Great Storm’ or Hurricane Low Q, the blast has been described as Central Scotland’s worst natural disaster since records began, leaving 2,000 Glaswegians homeless, 300 homes completely destroyed and a further 70,000 damaged.

In total, the gale affected 250,000 homes. Many families had to live with make-shift tarpaulin roofs for an abnormally long time whilst hospitals were asked to give mattresses to those who lost their homes and were forced to bed down in local schools.

It was in the early morning hours of Monday 15 January that Hurricane Low Q moved easterly from the Atlantic and raged its way up the River Clyde. Peak gales topped at 140 mph and tore down power lines in its path, leaving the whole city in darkness. The typhoon was also responsible for sinking seven ships and setting an oil rig adrift. 8,000 hectares of forestry and over 1,000 of mature trees were destroyed and downed.

A Glasgow police spokesman at the time said that it was ‘absolute havoc’ in the city, lampposts bent, and mounds of earth, stones and rubble built up around the city.

The storm cost millions, totalling at a mere £30 million (£516 million in today’s day in age). Before the disaster hit, many of Glasgow’s housing estates were in extremely poor condition and due to the killer winds, half of Glasgow’s 140,000 council houses were damaged.

The then Europe’s tallest flats were evacuated by tenants as they shook violently and ‘swayed back and forth’; their trademark chimney heads filled the streets. Many locals saw whole buildings collapse whilst the storm was compared to the wind speeds of the Lothar Cyclone in Paris in 1999, which saw 110 fatalities.

Officials in Glasgow said that the destruction that was caused was similar to that of the German bombings in World War II. It was on the 16th January that 150 troops from Edinburgh came to help in the clean up – the immediate aftermath showed identifiable tracks suggesting a tornado-type storm similar to the twisters found in the American mid-west.

Despite the absolute pandemonium that was caused, there was little media coverage of the event along with little support from Government. Labour lent an interest-free loan of £500,000 to the city – expecting it to be paid back in full once the £30 million pound worth of damage was renovated.

Five of the worst storms which have hit Scotland

Although there was talk of a “tornado type outbreak”. the Met Office report made clear the storm was widespread. Winds of 90 kts in Glasgow equate to 104 mph:

Note the reference to “storm force”. In those days the Met Office did not play fast and loose with meteorological terminology as they do now, calling everything depression to pass our way a “storm”. When they talked of storms, they meant storm force, as defined by the Beaufort Scale; average winds of 55 mph and over. Their summary for January showed that storm force winds covered a large swath of central and southern Scotland, as far south as Carlisle, even at low lying sites.

Gusts exceeded 100 mph at many low level sites as well in Scotland, for instance at Prestwick, Eskdalemuir. Leuchars, Midlothian and Renfrew. Even as far south as Durham, winds reached 104 mph.

Whilst the storm was not quite as severe in England and Wales, most of the country was hit by winds of 50 mph and more, even in the far south. Manchester had winds of 91 mph.

Nobody under 20 has ever experienced a storm like this one, or the many similar ones which hit Britain in the 1980s and 90s.