Emmerdale fans were left on the edge of their seats with each explosive episode this week as the storm caused chaos in the village.
The future of one of the soap's favourites, Sam Dingle, was left hanging in the balance earlier this week as the character, who has been portrayed by James Hooton for 27 years, was left on the brink of death.
Sam found himself trying to flee from a stampede of cows during the dramatic windstorm, which claimed two lives, and was impaled in his shoulder by a spike attached to a tractor.
With the character featuring on the soap for nearly three decades, viewers were left wondering if he would pull through from the injury.
Nate and Sam's sister Belle managed to free him and rush him to hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery. But, luckily, Sam had survived the incident and operation.
It was revealed, however, that Sam faces a long recovery ahead of him due to damage caused to his muscles.
Ahead of the scenes, Sam actor James teased the Dingle's fate as he told the Mirror: "It was a bit of a break from the norm and you never know what the show is gonna throw at you.
"I was told this was happening and you don't know what the outcome is gonna be for a story such as this.
"It was good, it was really interesting. The costume team went all out to try and deal with this spike scenario, it looks ultra realistic when you see it on screen.
"It was really interesting to film all that stuff because we spent the whole day on one scene, which is unheard of in soap territory spending so much time preparing and shooting a single scene."
Away from the Dales, 49-year-old James' life is very different to his character's.
James joined the soap as a 21-year-old Sam, who is Nellie and Zak Dingle's son, in February 1995, when his character was released from a young offender's institute.
He then took a break from the soap from 1998 until 2000 and has remained a staple in the Dales ever since.
The soap wasn't James' first acting gig as he made his TV debut in 1985 at the age of 12 in the children's TV series, Your Mother Wouldn't Like It.
He has also appeared in The Bill and Heartbeat and appeared in director Shane Meadow's first feature film Twenty Four Seven in 1997.
Away from his career, James is engaged to Nancy Lucas, who he popped the question to in 2010.
James' fiancée runs a dance company called Total Dance. The pair have been engaged for 12 years but are yet to walk down the aisle.
James and Nancy share two daughters Lily, 13, and Ava-Rose, who was born in 2016.
Recalling the birth of Ava-Rose to OK!, James previously said: "I was sat in the green room and I had two more scenes to do when I got a text at about 2:30pm saying 'There's no problem or anything but just get in touch when you can'."
"I had my phone in my pocket because I knew she could go into labour at any time," the ITV soap star continued.
"I rang her and she explained the situation and I said: 'It sounds like you're in labour!'"
The couple had tried for two years to conceive before Ava-Rose's arrival and decided to undergo IVF treatment after some time.
However, as they put plans in place to begin the process, Nancy discovered she was pregnant.
James' wife-to-be Nancy explained at the time of her pregnancy : "We’d just started going down the fertility route and were only three months into that when it happened without any intervention."
The soap actor added that Nancy fell pregnant just after she had a hysteropingogram, which is a procedure that involves putting dye through the fallopian tubes to check for any blockages.
He said: "The doctor said they get quite a high number of people falling pregnant just after that one very simple procedure, so it was what we went for first, and then a couple of weeks later we fell pregnant!"
Despite James' character having a rather convincing Leeds accent, James' voice is completely different to his character's.
When he appeared on This Morning in 2020, James stunned viewers as they discovered he spoke with a different accent to his character's.
Surprised fans took to Twitter as one penned: "Sam Dingle sounds so different in real life."
"Sam Dingle talks well posh in real life wtf. He usually sounds like a such a thug," a second said.
A third viewer gushed: "Sam Dingle is quite hot in real life."
