The big storm which lashed the Island on Thursday first came to the attention of weather forecasters on Tuesday.

A low pressure area began to develop to the south of Bermuda on Wednesday that was along the front that passed through the Island on Sunday.

Bermuda Weather Service forecaster Elizabeth Nelson said BWS on Tuesday was predicting winds of 30 to 40 knots for Wednesday night and Thursday.

However, the forecast issued to The Royal Gazette for Thursday's paper predicted that by Thursday night, there would be northeasterly winds of just 25-35 knots becoming 20-25 knots southeasterly.

The prediction for Thursday was "sunny breaks with occasional rain showers". It proved to be way off, as a ferocious storm whipped up with actual winds recorded by BWS as sustained 58 knot winds and gusts of up to 78 knots.

Bermuda Harbour Radio recorded even more powerful gusts of up to 94 knots. Harbour Radio recorded of 4-50 knots, surging to 55-65 knots with gusts of 75 knots. At its peak around midnight, Harbour Radio recorded sustained winds of 60-75 knots and gusts of 94 knots.

On Thursday afternoon, BWS realised its forecast on Wednesday of maximum winds of 40 knots was too low, and at 2 p.m. it issued a storm warning predicting winds of 48 knots or more.

Ms Nelson said yesterday: "This was a rapidly intensifying system, which is often badly forecast by the computer models of the atmosphere that we use to predict the weather past the next 12 hours."

Predicting the winds will drop to 20-30 knots this morning, she added: "There is little evidence that this is currently a tropical system."

as it has an associated frontal system. High winds cover a broad area and there is no deep convection of the storm's centre, which is why we have no thunderstorm activity."