In mid-January 1968 winds gusting to well over 100 miles per hour caused devastation in central Scotland – and the London-based media took not the slightest notice

In mid-January 1968, a weather system moved across the Atlantic Ocean towards Europe. Sometimes these weaken as they near our coasts, but this one deepened, dropping to a near record low of 956 millibars. As the gale began to strengthen, no one was prepared for the sheer power of the storm. Winds gusted to well over 100 miles per hour, and as it passed over the Central Belt of Scotland it wreaked unprecedented havoc. 21 people died, and in Glasgow alone more than 300 homes were destroyed, leaving over 1,000 residents homeless. 70,000 properties suffered storm damage, including half the city’s council houses, which had not been built to resist such winds.

I remember Scotland's killer storm of 1968, but who else south of Carlisle does? | Ian Jack Read more

On the river Clyde, several ships sank, while locals compared the effects of the storm to that of the Blitz. Elsewhere in Scotland, tens of thousands of trees were uprooted, and an oil rig escaped from its moorings and drifted away. In the aftermath, the event was named as Central Scotland’s worst ever natural disaster. Yet even though the storm affected huge swathes of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Lake District, the London-centric media barely reported it at all.