England, situated in the North Atlantic, does not experience hurricanes in the meteorological sense of the term. The conditions necessary to sustain a true tropical cyclone simply do not exist at the latitude of the British Isles. While this geographic protection prevents the arrival of the most destructive tropical systems, the country is regularly affected by severe weather. These powerful, non-tropical events are correctly classified as intense windstorms.
What Makes a Storm a Hurricane
A hurricane, known scientifically as a tropical cyclone, is a rotating storm system defined by a distinct set of atmospheric conditions. A primary requirement for its formation is an environment with very warm sea surface temperatures, typically at least 26.5 degrees Celsius, extending to a depth of roughly 50 meters. This warm water provides the massive amount of moisture and heat energy that fuels the storm’s powerful winds and torrential rainfall. The storm develops a symmetrical structure around a central “warm core,” where the air temperature is higher than the surrounding environment.
Tropical cyclones also require low vertical wind shear, meaning the wind speed and direction must remain relatively constant throughout the storm’s vertical structure. High wind shear would tilt the storm and tear its organized circulation apart, causing it to dissipate. Once a storm reaches sustained wind speeds of 119 kilometers per hour, it is officially classified as a hurricane. It is then rated on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which ranges from Category 1 up to Category 5 based solely on wind speed.
Geographic and Atmospheric Barriers
The North Atlantic Ocean provides a natural defense that prevents hurricanes from reaching England as tropical systems. Hurricanes rely on warm water for energy, but as they track poleward, they encounter sea surface temperatures that fall below the 26.5-degree Celsius threshold. This thermal barrier starves the storm of its energy source, beginning the process of decay. The North Atlantic Drift, an extension of the Gulf Stream, brings warm water toward the UK, but its heat dissipates before it can sustain a tropical storm.
Even if a storm maintains its structure over cooler waters, it must contend with increasingly hostile atmospheric conditions. The mid-latitudes are characterized by significantly higher vertical wind shear, which is linked to the powerful mid-latitude jet stream. This intense change in wind speed and direction with height is effective at disrupting the hurricane’s tightly organized structure. The combined effects of cooling water and high wind shear strip the storm of its tropical identity, forcing it to undergo a fundamental change.
Extratropical Transition: The Storm’s Change
When a hurricane moves into the mid-latitudes, it begins extratropical transition. The storm loses its symmetrical, warm-core structure and takes on the characteristics of a mid-latitude low-pressure system, or extratropical cyclone. This new type of storm is no longer fueled by the evaporation of warm seawater. Instead, it draws energy from the horizontal temperature differences between clashing warm and cold air masses, developing distinct weather fronts absent in tropical cyclones.
The remnants of these former hurricanes, often called “ex-hurricanes,” impact the west of Europe, including England, on average once every one to two years. Although the storm is no longer a hurricane, the transformation does not mean it is harmless. During transition, the storm’s wind field typically expands, spreading strong winds over a much wider area. The system also carries a massive plume of tropical moisture, which can lead to widespread, intense rainfall and severe flooding over the UK.
Severe Windstorms England Does Experience
The most severe wind events experienced by England are intense extratropical cyclones, also known as European windstorms or mid-latitude depressions. These storms form when cold polar air masses collide with warmer air masses from the subtropics, usually over the North Atlantic. They are driven by the powerful steering currents of the jet stream, which can cause them to deepen rapidly in a process called explosive cyclogenesis. These systems are fundamentally different from tropical cyclones in their origin and energy source.
A famous example is the Great Storm of 1987, which is often mistakenly remembered as a hurricane due to the severity of its winds. This event was a rapidly deepening extratropical cyclone that produced hurricane-force wind gusts exceeding 185 kilometers per hour in some coastal locations. The storm’s intensity was partially attributed to a “sting jet,” a narrow stream of air that descends from the storm’s cloud head, bringing a burst of strong wind to the surface. Though the winds reached hurricane speed, the storm’s structure and formation place it firmly in the category of a European windstorm.