Is the Met Office a Serious Scientific Organisation Any Longer?

In their State of the UK Climate Report 2025, recently published, the Met Office made the astonishing suggestion that Storm Eowyn, which hit Britain in January 2025, was worse than the Great Storm of 1987. They even produced this chart to “prove” it:

This is gaslighting of the highest order and an insult to all those who lost their lives in 1987.

Apparently, they say, the severity of the 1987 storm was down to the fact that trees were still in leaf. It was not really as bad as you thought!

So why does their chart imply Eowyn was worse?

Simple. Eowyn’s storm track took it across the mountains and clifftops of Northern Ireland and southern Scotland. Naturally, winds will be stronger on high hills and exposed coastal headlands than they are down at ground level.

Wind gusts during Eowyn hit 100 mph on the top of a 900ft hill at Drumalbin, high up in the wild, windswept Lanarkshire Hills. Next highest was 96 mph at Brizlee Wood, an 800ft hill in Northumberland, so high and exposed that it has an RAF golf ball on top....<<<Read More>>>...