The storm Lothar, named by European meteorologists, is a winter synoptic storm with an explosive character that hit Western Europe, the first of two storms at the end of December 1999 in Europe. Its average winds reached up to 115 km/h inland (Orly), but with gusts exceeding 150 km/h, almost equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane, devastated northern France, Switzerland, and Germany on December 26, 1999. It caused significant damage, especially to forests, with gusts reaching 180 km/h in the plains at Saint-Sylvain and up to 259 km/h and 272 km/h at altitude according to sources.

The great storm of 1987 was a violent extratropical cyclone that occurred on the night of 15–16 October, with hurricane-force winds causing casualties in the United Kingdom, France, and the Channel Islands as a severe depression in the Bay of Biscay moved northeast. Among the most damaged areas were Greater London, Kent, the East Anglian coast, the Home Counties, the west of Brittany, and the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy, all of which weathered gusts typically with a return period of 1 in 200 years.