Worst September Storm For 30 Years?

It is being hailed as the most intense September Storm for thirty years, bringing some torrential spells of rainfall and strong winds northwards across many areas of the UK since its arrival on Sunday. Early yesterday morning, the low’s central pressure dropped to 973mb across NE England, which is the lowest central pressure for September over the UK since 1981. Rainfall has been pretty significant across northern parts of the UK too, with 93mm falling at Rhyl in North Wales since Sunday until late yesterday, 110mm falling at Killylane in Northern Ireland and 123mm at Ravensworth in North Yorkshire for the same period – which is almost twice the average for the whole of September.

The storm’s intensity can be traced back to the interaction of cold air coming southeast across the North Atlantic clashing with remnants of Tropical Storm Nadine near the Azores. The interaction spawned an intense low that is now being coined ‘The Child of Nadine’ – and as you may have seen from the news, it’s brought extensive flooding to parts of northern England, along with severe gales, bringing trees down across Scotland.

The weather will become more benign by the end of this week, as the Child of Nadine mellows somewhat, but not before we see further heavy downpours today across parts of England and Wales circulating around the low across the west. Showers will be frequent, slow-moving and locally torrential across SE England and East Anglia this morning with further showers this afternoon, which could bring some localised flooding. Also frequent and slow-moving showers spreading up across SW England, Wales and in across the Midlands and parts of northern England through the day. Further north across Scotland and Northern Ireland, apart from rain across southern Scotland this morning which should clear, it will be a generally dry, bright or sunny day, though a few showers possible for eastern Scotland.

Quieter on Thursday, still a risk of heavy and thundery showers developing across SE England, but most places will be generally dry with sunny spells and just isolated showers developing here and there. Friday will see a weather front move southeast, bringing a spell of rain across most areas of the UK, followed by brighter but showery conditions from the northwest. Saturday is looking mostly dry and sunny for most areas, though rain spreading in across the far northwest later in the day will then spread southeast across many areas on Sunday.


Published on 26th September 2012 10:44 Updated: 26th September 2012 10:44