The London Weather Station

It is not exactly a weather occurrence, but still an interesting natural phenomenon, that literally shock London the night before last. It was the strongest earth quake to hit Britain in 24 years – since 1984, when an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter Scale shook northern Wales, in the west of the British Isles.

The earthquake occurred at 00.56am on Wednesday, the tremor was measured at approximately 5.2 on the Richter scale, it was 10 seconds long and although its epicentre was 8km east of Market Rasen in Lincolnshire, it was felt by many people in London. As the earthquake happened 15km underground the real force of it was not felt.

Three hours later, an aftershock with a magnitude of 1.8 was felt in large parts of England and Wales.

I have to admit that I did not notice any of that, as I did not wake up - obviously I am blessed with a deep sleep.

The largest earthquake ever recorded in Britain struck some 120 km north-east of the North Sea port of Great Yarmouth in 1931 on June 7th.

That earthquake measured 6.1 on the Richter Scale and was felt across Britain, in eastern Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and parts of Germany, France, Norway and Denmark.

An earthquake of the strength like the one we experienced yesterday will happen in Great Britain every 10-20 years and there are around 200 little earthquakes every year that are measured, but only around 30 of them can be felt.

Quite a few houses were damaged, mainly chimneys and windows – and it proves how important it is to have home-insurance as earth quake, the same as floods and tornadoes is considered an “act of god” and therefore covered by the insurance.

Another important point being made at the moment is that you should take responsibility yourself and maintain your house properly by securing loose tiles or repairing cracks or obvious weaknesses in brickwork, as you might endanger your own life otherwise.

A bout of extreme weather can strike at any time and in any street across the UK with devastating effects – which brings the mini-tornadoes to mind that we had ripping through areas of north-west London last year in December as recalled in this BBC article.

Check out

• the weather in London today
• the weather in London this weekend