18 years since that vigorous low tracked across southern parts bringing severe gales, heavy rain and adding to the flooding problems but the thing that stands out for me from this event was the snow. It was short lived but it was still quite a sight to see snow falling at sea level here at that time of the year. 

There was an article on it in the Weather magazine from October 2001

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1477-8696.2001.tb06510.x

Forecast from that day

[flash=]425,350

I remember that. Can't believe that is 18 years ago now.

A vigorous cold front moved through here with vertical rain and gusts easily 80mph at around 8am.

This came after a wild night with gusts of 70-75mph.

The cold front was accompanied with hail, thunder and lightning and a drop in temperature from 14c to 7c in just 10 minutes.

I remember this very well. One of the most remarkable individual weather events in the 26 years I have lived here as this was the nearest thing to a true blizzard that I have ever experienced here, and it was October! Had the snow been a little heavier than I think I ould have considered it a blizzard but the wind was most certainly strong enough.

And it all happened in the time it took to have a bath! At first there was wind and rain battering the south side of the house but nothing particularly unusual for late October. Then suddenly everything went very quiet, This seemed a little odd but I didn't think all that much of it. Then the wind began to rise again and by the time I emerged from the tub 15-20 mins later there was a tremendous gale lashing the north of the house and it was snowing quite heavily. I remember getting the milk in and was just blasted by this wind. Must have been 1-2cms snow (can't really remember details) but by the time I went to work a little later it was all over, it was merely breezy and could have been any chilly late October morning.

I seem to remember it being called the Millenium storm.

The damage in London stuck out for me and I will never forget the front pushing through about 7:30am it reminded me of what people experienced during a hurricane. I surveyed the damage and there were quite a lot of trees blown down in Wimbledon the most I remember.

I was 17 at the time. Time has flown by!

I'll never forget this one!  To this day, it remains the most powerful sustained wind I've experienced at my current home (that's going back to 1993).  Never heard a sound quite like it. It made a very loud, ominous droning sound as it blew through the trees which was persistent for at least an hour or so around breakfast time.  Also a friend of mine said that there was some sleet with it too here.

I think I've only known a couple of events comparable to this one -  the early January 1976 Northerly gale, and the Burns Day storm of Jan 1990.

I don't remember this at all and I'm wondering why- I'm also annoyed I cannot join the remembrance party in a knowledgeable capacity.

A shame the article in Weather didn't include a summary/conclusion for the weather from that event. A simple statement to say what factors combined and which were dominant in leading to this outcome would have been interesting & maybe useful.