I remember 1987 reasonably well. It was indeed a surprise, not least because our pretty much once a day forecast told us it wasn't going to amount to much. When a town called Seven Oaks loses six of them, it really wasn't nothing.
Today, we have much better and clearer information. Not only the forecasters, but us ... we can look at our local weather, we can use peer-validated data from the likes of DarkSky or look to Windy.com for a clear picture of what's going on. Whether all that gives us a clearer picture is one thing, whether it puts our minds at rest is another ... the more data, the more uncertainly.
Sad to read of the loss of life yesterday. Four people, apparently. On raw data, compare to 1987 with 18 lives lost. Back to the data - forewarned is forearmed and I do think we took way more precautions than strictly necessary yesterday, but it was a one-off and I think the calls that were made were right.
Keep safe, folks ...
I see strong winds (relatively) are still in place today for many of yesterday's affected areas and continues into tomorrow. Our part of the country is due "heavy snow" and then 45-50 mph for about 20 hours starting tomorrow. I guess that'll blow off the fields and fill all the roads in again.
^ from 2013 when we had snow and sideways winds.