16th August 2004: the day of the Boscastle flood

Forecast for that day 16th August 2004




Peter Gibbs explains what caused it.




Footage of the flood.




Wikipedia article on the flood

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boscastle_flood_of_2004 

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I remember that day well. Much as this August hasn't been great by any means, this month 10 years ago was truly dreadful and was IMO just as bad as any one month we saw during the sequence of poor summers from 2007-2012. IIRC, the UK was affected by no less than three ex-tropical storms during that month, starting with ex-Hurricane Alex between the 9th and the 13th of August. Only right at the end of the month did the weather try to settled down to any extent. I think that in some areas it was the wettest August on record, or for many, many years anyway.

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OMG Is that 10 years ago. Phew talk about how quickly time goes.

 

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Not a month that those that were directly affected by the bad weather will easily forget Gavin, especially all those that were in Boscastle on the day of that storm.

Incidentally, just two days later, the same low pressure system that was responsible for the Boscastle incident also caused a thunderstorm that led to a double landslide in the Scottish western Highlands at Geln Ogle. Over fifty motorists were trapped between each landslide and many were airlifted to safety.

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/landslides/GlenOgle.html

Summer 2004 as a whole wasn't great but it plummed new depths during that August. Had June & July that year been as bad as August was, then IMO it would have ranked just as badly as summer 2012 in my book.

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I was a bit further down the coast that day on holiday in Perranporth.
Remember the day well as in the morning there were large spots of rain from seemingly cloudless skies above, there must have been so much moisture up there.
The afternoon on Perranporth beach was largely okay, but the cloud in the distance towards the north and Boscastle was dark and appeared to back build and we ended up on the outskirts.
Couldn't believe it when we went back to our accommodation and saw the breaking news on the TV and rescue just down the road late afternoon.

Yes and Peter Gibbs had more hair then.

Was in Canada and it made the news there.

Incidentally, Canada (well, Alberta) also had a poor summer in 2004

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