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The first Autumnal blast of the season is upon us, with recorded wind speeds of around 50mph in more exposed parts of the Yorkshire. Of course this is relatively common at this time of the year.The strongest gusts have been caused by funnelling through local topographical gaps, such as the Aire valley which runs through Leeds.

The strongest winds in Yorkshire are often caused by lee (or mountain) waves. The worst recorded lee wave happened on February 16th 1962. The so called 'Sheffield storm' flattened part of the city.

In the early hours of that morning, an Atlantic depression battered the Northwest of the UK. Across Yorkshire, urban areas such as Barnsley and Rotherham reported similar wind speeds to those recorded today. But shortly before dawn, the mean speed in Sheffield increased suddenly to 70mph - with huge gusts peaking at 96mph - levelling part of the great steel city. It was not just Sheffield that was badly affected. 66,000 trees were blown over in and around the reservoirs of West Yorkshire. Perhaps worst affected were the grounds of Chatsworth house in North Derbyshire - virtually all the trees on the estate were uprooted.

The National Centre for Atmospheric Science at Leeds University have renetly conducted research into the Sheffield storm. It shows that the events of 1962 were not unique, and are likely to happen again. Interestingly, by feeding data into their computer simulation, they also show that, if atmospheric conditions repeat themselves, forecasters would have a good chance of predicting such devastating winds.

You can see more on this new research, and other extreme weather events, with some great archive footage, in my new TV programme called 'Wild Weather' next Monday on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Yorkshire. There'll be more details on this later in the week.

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