Disruption from the strong winds as two people die. Lots of images to look at today as the remnants of ex-Hurricane Gonzalo buffet the UK.
Temperatures this morning were 14C in the SE to start the day, only 7C in N.Ireland. Mid morning the last of the mild air is fading as the strong NW winds take over and bring a plunge of colder Polar maritime air down through the UK. This unstable air is bring heavy showers, bit more energy as they arrive over land and up they go, with thunderstorms being set off along the western coasts. Merseyside, Exmoor and NW Highlands seeing a few in the past hour (10-11am). Eastern Britain has had some heavy frontal rain this morning but there will be some shelter and brightness for the rest of the day. The winds are strong enough to blow the hefty showers right across the UK but it will be western areas seeing most of the downpours with hail and more thunder mixed in
Red crosses show recent lightning strikes, bright colours on radar echoes show intense scattered downpours
The Infra-red satellite picture from 06Z shows the changing air masses. Losing the milder air from the SW as the showery air mass moves in from the NW
The daraker areas are sea and land, with greyish bits low cloud and white areas, higher cloud tops. The Cirrus is very white as it is high and cold, and the sea areas with clear skies are black as relatively warm. The specked pattern over the Atlantic shows the area of showers moving in.
And a little hint already over the tops of the Scottish mountains, of wintry bits. Using the Prec Type button on the Netweather Radar you can see what type of preciptation is around. Green will be sleety mix at the moment but perhaps by this afternoon/early evening there will be some pinks showing as the colder air really takes hold. Won't last and will only be up high.
7pm Tuesday
There has been snow on the tops of the Scottish mountains today, with a gust of 109mph at the top of Cairngorm, which is 1244m up. A woman has died after being hit by a falling tree in central London and other falling trees have caused disruption on roads,mainly in Scotland and further injuries in W.Sussex. A man in Essex has died after his van fell off its jack onto him, reported to be because of the gusty winds. Ferries have been cancelled and services disrupted or unable to dock across the Irish Sea and to the Scottish Islands. Some domestic flights have been cancelled at Heathrow and planes buffeted about at Manchester today in the strong gusts. The Channel Islands had a stormy day too.
