The Great Storm of 1854 occurred in and around the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

on 14 November 1854. It caused severe damage and caused major disruption to armed forces—naval forces especially—in the region engaged in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

. At the time of the storm, the British and allied supply fleet was in the Black Sea with all of the supplies for the winter campaign. A strong gale blew up and began battering the fleet. Eyewitness accounts record the flattening of tents and uprooting of trees, and at least 37 ships were either severely damaged or wrecked. Most of the winter supplies were lost, including food, fuel, and winter uniforms. As a result, many men died from hypothermia and disease. The storm caused a series of scandals. Funds raised to help the troops disappeared, much of it into the pockets of officers. It was also discovered that the storm had been tracked across Europe prior to its arrival off

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

, but no warning was sent. As a result of this latter occurrence, several countries quickly launched independent meteorological services. In France,

Urbain Le Verrier Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier FRS (FOR) H FRSE (; 11 March 1811 – 23 September 1877) was a French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune usin ...

, director of the Observatoire de Paris, was commanded to set up a storm warning system; this later developed into an international meteorological service. Though it is impossible to precisely calculate the strength or speed of the wind, estimates have placed it around force 11 on the Beaufort Scale.

Footnotes

Sources

* * 1854 in Europe 1854 meteorology 1854 natural disasters Crimean War November 1854 events Storms {{Crimea-hist-stub

See also

Footnotes

Sources