What Storm?

[Parksy]

There have been reports of trees being blown down in southern England but from what I've read from friends in various parts of the country on Facebook it looks as though the weather forecasters have gone over the top with their climate change agenda scaremongering this time.
Here in the Midlands the weather is calm and bright after showers earlier today, has this 'storm' affected you?
Has anyone cancelled or postponed half term breaks in the caravan because of the over egged weather forecast?

 

[earlyriser]

ask damien had 100 mph winds on south island [isle of wight ] overnight apparrently holding hat icon thingy

 

[Surfer]

Is this another bad joke from the Met office? A bit of rain last night
and a stiff breeze. This morning lovely sun shine although clouding
over at the moment.

Did any one watch Sky this morning where they interviewed a man from
Cape Town South Africa and he could not understand all the fuss about
high winds. In Cape Town they have the Southeaster during the summer
and nearly every day you have gale force winds. I know I lived there
for 18 years.
It never stopped us going about our business whatever it
is. Over here a bit of a breeze and leaves on the tracks and everything
grinds to a stand still.

 

[JonnyG]

Is this another bad joke from the Met office? A bit of rain last night
and a stiff breeze. This morning lovely sun shine although clouding
over at the moment.

Did any one watch Sky this morning where they interviewed a man from
Cape Town South Africa and he could not understand all the fuss about
high winds. In Cape Town they have the Southeaster during the summer
and nearly every day you have gale force winds. I know I lived there
for 18 years.
It never stopped us going about our business whatever it
is. Over here a bit of a breeze and leaves on the tracks and everything
grinds to a stand still.

oh i dont know two dead and 100 mile an hour winds reported in various places, might get my kite out...17 year old girl killed in caravan, maybe somebody should inform the trees its not windy enough to go falling ontop of things! who knows maybe if the trains had ran as normal we could have had a few stories of derailments! Now what would we make of that? wouldnt we all be going they knew there were seroius storms why did they still run?....edit.. 130 flights cancelled at heathrow now that would be fun several planes coming down.. storms were serious enough to bring down craines in central london! do we need huge body counts before we realise it could have been much worse, if "everybody went around as normal"

 

[Parksy]

I'm very sorry for those affected, especially those two who died but the Met office have had most of the country in lockdown with tales of huricanes sweeping across the country from the southwest to the northeast. It would appear that the south has been hit but not huge swathes of the country as the news reports would have had us believe. I wonder how much money this inaccurate forecasting has cost the country?

 

[JonnyG]

like you parksy i am sitting in an area that really hasnt seen much, [east midland] and heck i am so glad but were only 70 miles north of Watford how accurately can they be with weather patterns . its affected what almost 50% of the population?[ southern england] i wonder how much more it would have cost the country if the weather warning had not been issued? and considering i am in a safish area for some reason traffic this morning seemed busier than normal...latest weather report suggest its heading towards denmark and picking up! so we,ve been lucky? weather patterns do change and reports are still coming in......

 

[otherclive]

Damned if they do damned if they don't. 200 trees down on rail lines along the track predicted would spoil anyone's travel plans. We had trees down on roads in Wilts and localised flooding which again caused travel disruption but fortunately no one injured or worse. 250000 without power. As we were planning to visit the National Forest we watched the Met Office forecast for intensity of wind and rain and track and from late Saturday they got it pretty accurate. However the media hyped it as ever. We delayed our trip until tomorrow.

 

[otherclive]

Interesting to see the effects of this weather system on continental Europe. Four killed and many power outages from the French Brittany coast through to Denmark. Flights canceled and disruption at Hamburg and Schipol. Many train cancellations and delays in northern France, Belgium, Germany Netherlands and Denmark. Severe disruption to north Germsn ferries too. So perhaps it was a bit more than your normal Autumn Sou wester. It's refreshing to find Britain's media reporting problems in other European countries as I had thought only us Brits were unable to cope.

 

[RayS]

Here where Somerset joins Wiltshire and Dorset just a normal windy wet night. However, not very far away - Crewkerne one way and Salibury the other, quite a few problems. I noticed BBC being helpful again by saying 'some ferries cancelled, without any more information but chapter and verse on the railways.
Certainly not like the October 1987 affair.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Damned if they do damned if they don't.

That I think is just right. On this occasion the Met office warnings may have seemed OTT for parts of the country (I like Parksy reside in the West Midlands and the weathjer has not been too bad) but looking at the damage caused in some areas, do wonder what caranage we might have seen if they hadn't issued the warning.
Countries that are used to hurricanes cannot predict the exact path, or the extend of the damaging winds, so as someone else has said 50 to 70 mile error is not unreasonable.

 

[Mel]

I was at a loss as to what to do. I suppose if we had been planning to tow the van, we wouldn,t have; but as we were just at home, I lay down the bird-table-on-a-leg as its wobbly in the wind; wished the large maple tree at the end of my drive bon chance, and went inside. I don`t think it is the weather forecasters who are over egging it, it is the rest of the media who were wetting themselves in delight at the opportunity to post reporters at every rocky outcrop telling us how bad it is.
mel

 

[Gafferbill]

Two young people killed in my area......one a 17year old girl asleep in a caravan/mobile home that had a tree fall on it and one a 14 year old boy swept out to sea.

Both deaths could have been avoided had they listened to the warnings and acted accordingly.......we had an amber warning in our area.

 

[otherclive]

Mel is absolutely correct about the media hyping events. I used the Met Office website which was excellent and although things changed as more information was gained from Saturday it was sufficient for me to decide that towing on Sunday afternoon would not have been a good idea. as events turned out I think I made the right decision. And our granddaughter certainly slept better last night than she would have had she been in a caravan doing its best to simulate a 747 in severe turbulence

 

[RogerL]

Two young people killed in my area......one a 17year old girl asleep in a caravan/mobile home that had a tree fall on it and one a 14 year old boy swept out to sea.

Both deaths could have been avoided had they listened to the warnings and acted accordingly.......we had an amber warning in our area.

Was the 17-year old girl expected not to sleep in her usual bedroom?
It's the long notice and preparation that has kept the death toll down to 5, only 2/3 of a million properties without power and just 100 railway line blockages.
As it left the UK, it strengthened from Storm Force 10 to Hurrican Force 12 when it hit the Netherlands
For once, everything that could have been done was done - don't knock it.

 

[Damian]

Well, here on the Isle of Wight we had gusts of 99mph and steady winds of 88mph, torrential rain and quite a lot of trees down, blocking some roads, flooding on others.
All the ferry services shut down until around 9am this morning and most of the bus services that use double decker vehicles stopped.
The rest of today has been very windy and occasional heavy downpours but not too bad.

 

[otherclive]

Two young people killed in my area......one a 17year old girl asleep in a caravan/mobile home that had a tree fall on it and one a 14 year old boy swept out to sea.

Both deaths could have been avoided had they listened to the warnings and acted accordingly.......we had an amber warning in our area.

i am sure that you really don't mean what you say. Not far from us is a prestigious park home development set in mature woodland. Since most of these homes consist of two mobiles joined and clad then with decks and conservatories added. Would you advise their occupants to go elsewhere when inclement weather arrives?

 

[Mel]

I guess it is sometimes hard to know where a sensible response ends. There is the obvious stuff like don`t tow, and stay away from the sea front or cliff top; but my large tree is very close to the neighbouring houses, and if the storm had hit the east mids (it didn`t) and brought my tree down (it didn`t), the tree would have demolished at least one of the terraced houses it is alongside. Should my neighbours have not slept there; should all people who have similarly large trees next to them have slept elsewhere? If the worst happens then the hindsight answer is yes, but are people really going to start evacuating their homes?

 

[nyx2k]

here on the coast nr chichester we got steady wind at 60mph and gusts upto 90mph.
lost 40 fence panels and a fair few shrubs etc but van was in a friends sheltered driveway and im glad i moved it from my drive to his a few miles away as a few tiles fell from the roof into my driveway where the caravan would normally be.

 

[Gafferbill]

Was the 17-year old girl expected not to sleep in her usual bedroom?

.......she was not sleeping in her normal bedroom she was sleeping temporaly in a caravan in the grounds of her parent's house that was having building work done on it. The caravan was sited next to a large tree.

i am sure that you really don't mean what
you say. Not far from us is a prestigious park home development set in
mature woodland. Since most of these homes consist of two mobiles joined
and clad then with decks and conservatories added. Would you advise
their occupants to go elsewhere when inclement weather arrives?

..........I would advise them not to live in a park home where a tree could possibly fall on it.

If they were living in such a home and a storm amber warning had been given by the Met Office with the specific warning of falling trees.......then yes I would advise them to go elsewhere.

I do not know what warnings were isued in the Bath area......but I do know what warnings were issued in Sussex and Kent

 

[Raywood]

We escaped with nothing more than some heavy rain here in Scotland but have to say the figures quoted did not seem any worse than we get most years and survive. May be my Northern bias but it did look from here as London getting on the news for something that would have got a passing mention if it occurred elsewhere.

 

[otherclive]

Was the 17-year old girl expected not to sleep in her usual bedroom?

.......she was not sleeping in her normal bedroom she was sleeping temporaly in a caravan in the grounds of her parent's house that was having building work done on it. The caravan was sited next to a large tree.

i am sure that you really don't mean what
you say. Not far from us is a prestigious park home development set in
mature woodland. Since most of these homes consist of two mobiles joined
and clad then with decks and conservatories added. Would you advise
their occupants to go elsewhere when inclement weather arrives?

..........I would advise them not to live in a park home where a tree could possibly fall on it.

If they were living in such a home and a storm amber warning had been given by the Met Office with the specific warning of falling trees.......then yes I would advise them to go elsewhere.

I do not know what warnings were isued in the Bath area......but I do know what warnings were issued in Sussex and Kent

And what would you advise the residents in the house where a tree fell on it and caused the gas explosion? Move to Shetland and only have electric as your sole energy supply? Or beeter still should we fell all of the UK's tress that are within distance of living and working accomodation? Perhaps you have " ...a cunning plan"

 

[Dunclair]

We live in Plymouth, which was supposed to get a massive hit. "Hurrican force winds in Plymouth Sound."
We had planned to go to a favourite site near Falmouth. Forecast for there was worse. Therefore, thinking I was doing the right thing, I cancelled our booking on Thursday.
Just as in the previous weeks's "Storm of the century", we had a bit of wind and some rain. Nothing much at all.
What really grips my tripes is that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday when we were, according to the forecasters, going to be living through a recreation of Noah's flood, we had SUNSHINE!!! and very little wind. So little that my curly oak wasn't even moving!
We taxpayers paid an astranomic amount for the Met Office to be able to own one of the most powerful computers in the world. Yes, there was an intense low pressure system coming. Yes, it could and did cause serious damage and sadly, some deaths. BUT, those guys have very, very clever and very expensive software, not to mention the satelites, balloons and planes to tell them where the storm cell is going to go. So why do they get it so wrong so often?
Maybe we should all go back to pine cones on a string. Would we be any worse off? NO! Far better off if you consider the cost of keeping a bunch of well paid blokes, giving us scaremongering information which is usually wrong.

 

[RogerL]

And what would you advise the residents in the house where a tree fell on it and caused the gas explosion? Move to Shetland and only have electric as your sole energy supply? Or beeter still should we fell all of the UK's tress that are within distance of living and working accomodation? Perhaps you have " ...a cunning plan"

The cunning plan - is for everyone to move to the Shetlands - no trees there!
No natural trees anyway - there is one small plantation though!

 

[Dustydog]

Here near Cirencester was a non event. Having braved the 1987 storms this was nothing. In fact there was hardly any tree debris to be seen. No one seems to have lost any roof tiles and the caravan was still standing next morning!

I'm not moving to the Shetlands, one of the wettest and stormiest places in the UK.

 

[Gafferbill]

And what would you advise the residents in the house where a tree fell
on it and caused the gas explosion? Move to Shetland and only have
electric as your sole energy supply?
Or beeter still should we fell all of the UK's tress that are within distance of living and working accomodation? Perhaps you have " ...a cunning plan"

My cunning plan is pollarding / pruning......and I have practiced this cunning plan in my own garden for years.

You may notice I have resisted the urge to mock your suggestions!