THE Great Storm of 1703, the worst storm ever to hit Britain, reached its peak on the night of November 26-27, 1703.
1. The Great Storm of 1703 killed an estimated 8,000 people in southern England.
2. It also blew ships hundreds of miles, blew down more than 400 windmills, demolished more than 2,000 large chimneys in London alone and destroyed the Eddystone Lighthouse.
3. A storm is officially a wind of force10 on the Beaufort scale (55-63mph).
4. If the wind reaches 64-73mph, it becomes a violent storm. Beyond that it is a hurricane.
5. In a storm in Arkansas in 1974, people were pelted by frozen ducks, killed by a blast of cold air.
6. Camels have three eyelashes on each eye. One acts as a sort of windscreen wiper in sandstorms.
7. The world’s first revolving door was the Van Kannel Revolving Storm Door, patented in 1888 by Theophilus van Kannel of Philadelphia.
8. At any moment, about 2,000 thunderstorms are taking place somewhere on Earth.
9. In 1997, Storm was the 959th most common male name in the USA and Stormy was the 995th most common female name.
10. No fish in the film The Perfect Storm was real. Live fish were animatronic; dead fish were rubber.
