Bibliography - Michael W. Rowe
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The storm of 16th October 1987 and a brief comparison with three other historic gales in Southern England (1362, 1662, 1703), by M. W. Rowe, published June 1988 in The Journal of Meteorology (vol. 13, no. 129, article, pp.149-155)   Download PDF

The storm of 16th October 1987 was one of the most destructive gales on record in South-East England. However, the damage appears to have been neither as widespread nor a severe as in the gales of 1362, 1662 and 1703, although in Kent and Sussex it may have been comparble with the storm of 1703, which was in general the most severe of the four. Major factors in the development of the 1987 storm were an exceptional thermal gradient in the upper atmosphere over the Atlantic and the existence of a sharp upper trough to the west of Britain.

Tornado causes emergency evacuation at Selsey, Southern England, during the night of 20-21 November 1986, by M. W. Rowe, published November 1988 in The Journal of Meteorology (vol. 13, no. 133, article, pp.349-355)   Download PDF

Four tornados formed during the passage of a cold front associated with a small frontal depression which passed across England and Wales during the night of 20-21 November 1986. In total, 300-400 houses were damaged by the four tornados, three of which reached force T3. At Selsey, West Sussex, nearly 300 people had to be evacuated from their damaged homes.

Climate change, the frequency of UK tornadoes and other issues raised in the media reporting of the Selsey tornado, 7 January 1998, by Derek M. Elsom, David J. Reynolds and Michael W. Rowe, published January 1999 in The Journal of Meteorology (vol. 24, no. 235, article, pp.3-13)   Download PDF

The T3-4 intensity tornado which struck Selsey, West Sussex, on 7 January 1998 received unusually widespread and headline national media coverage. This article considers the narure of the media reporting of that event, especially in terms of its content and accuracy. The media made much of the possibility that climate change, specifically global warming, is resulting in more tornadoes occuring in the UK. UK TORRO's database of tornadic activity for the period 1960 to 1997 indicates there is no significant trend within this period although the late 1980s and to some extent the 1990s produced fewer annual numbers of tornadoes and tornado days than many of the years in the 1970s and early 1980s.