[2][3] The cause of this funnelling effect was a temperature inversion, which meant that high winds generated over the higher ground to the west of the city were unable to escape the surface layer, instead effectively "bouncing" off the underside of the inversion layer and being funnelled down into the lower levels of the city.

As shown on the anemograph trace to the right, wind speeds rose very rapidly from relatively calm to a peak of 97 mph (156 km/h) in Sheffield in the early hours of 16 February, and only slowly decreased throughout the course of the day as the low moved out into the North Sea.

[3] A floodlight pylon at Bramall Lane football and cricket stadium collapsed onto the field, as did perimeter walls at the Shoreham Street end of the ground.

[5][6] Near Heeley railway station, a full train travelling to Sheffield from London narrowly avoided striking debris on the tracks.

[5] There were difficulties in finding enough emergency accommodation to temporarily house everybody who had been made homeless from the storm in Sheffield, to the extent that hotel owners as far afield as Blackpool, Cleethorpes and Morecambe offered to host those who had lost their homes.

[5] After passing over the north of the United Kingdom, the deep low responsible for the Great Sheffield Gale moved first over Norway and then, overnight on 16–17 February, down into northern Germany.

A storm surge from the low, combined with high tide, contributed to the catastrophic North Sea flood of 1962.