Just Before Dawn

Really? That's the best you can do? And they say wit is dead.

Interesting read. The wave height assessment by NOAA is remarkable, and potentially troubling for parts of the south west. Potentially 8m + waves heights close on-shore. We don't see that very often in southern England.

True, and it's probably a lot more than I make, but even so........

It's really tricky for the Chief Forecaster in situations like this. Too early and you run the risk of getting it wrong. Too late, and it's of limited value (particularly on a Sunday). I don't envy him!

Yes indeed. It appeared as I was typing. You're absolutely right.

It's not the the Job of the Met Office to tell you how to prepare for any disruptive event and you won't find any Met Office briefing ever that tells anyone to go out and stock up on food. Why do some people find it so difficult to accept that some people's circumstances might be different to their own and that levels of preparation differ from individual to individual?

Really? It's the people who do take precautionary action that annoy you? I can tell you don't work in emergency planning.

The Met do like to give us 24 hours notice of Red Warning events - allows emergency planners to move equipment, sort out staffing and in my case, get some of our pumping equipment serviced and temporary generators installed. They might well issue a red warning at or before the 10am update tomorrow morning, what with it being a weekend. And this was supposed to be my week off. *sigh*.

Hi Tilly, Came to this thread late - did you pick up a longer zoom for wildlife? One of the things not mentioned so far is consider second-hand lenses (if you can get them from a reputable source!). I do a lot of wildflower photography and picked up my Tamron 90mm macro for £220 second hand - I prefer it to the Nikon 85mm equivalent and it's served me well for 3 years in some pretty inhospitable places. London Camera Exchange I find is a good place to source second hand equipment, though these days I tend to use Ffords (search them on google).

Indeed, though with the pressure, you can add 50cm to tide table predictions. With the wind strength and the longer fetch from the Bay of Biscay, it'll still be pretty spectacular. What it won't likely be is the sort of dangerous sustained storm surge you'd get on a spring tide.

As a side note, Monday Morning's high tide could see some impressive wave heights in places like Bournemouth or Lyme Regis. Although we're in a period of neap tides, the longer cross-sea fetch, general low pressure and the wind speed on Monday morning could see wave heights of 5 metres or more somewhere along the south-west coast. Possibly higher, depending on undersea topography.

There's the potential for some very high wave heights in the Channel on Monday morning based on 18z - 8 metres plus in places with the right benthic topography given the wind strength and direction. Expect dramatic pictures from places like Bournemouth or Lyme Regis on Monday morning.

I wouldn't use a tripod in those conditins anyway - if your shot has a shutter speed so slow it needs a tripod, a tripod won't keep it stable enough in strong winds to get the shot, unless it has a low wide setting. There's nothing quite so depressing as seeing a tripod blown over and camera parts scattering this way and that. I'll be on the Lincolnshire Coast on Monday Morning, with my cameras as well!

The Met Office offer a handy matrix alongside their warnings to help explain that the warning is a combination of impact and probability - I guess with the probability for a given area still in some doubt, red warnings are premature at this time. I like the way the Met do that, it's a nice and clear explanation of why they are issuing the warning they're issuing.

Barn owls are doing OK in the UK - they're very localised, but I live in a part of the world with a healthy, and increasing Barn Owl population. Great Crested Newts are doing OK too - they are protected not because they're particularly rare or threatened in Britain, but because Britain has a huge percentage of the world population. It's a good thread this - however it's often the charismatic stuff that gets the mentions in this discussion, and not the stuff that should be. The mammal in the UK next in line for extinction is probably the Wildcat, not through hunting but through genetic mixing with feral pet cats. The Vendace, the white-clawed crayfish, the Corn Bunting - these are all species either clinging on at one or two sites, or undergoing a catastrophic decline - and don't get me started on wild plants! As far as Tigers are concerned, I agree, though the recent work by the WWF in Bhutan has at least identified a stable and healthy Tiger population there.

We've now got a storm over us just to the west of Louth.

https://forum.netweather.tv/gallery/image/18570-thunderstorm/ https://forum.netweather.tv/gallery/image/18569-thunderstorm-lincs/ https://forum.netweather.tv/gallery/image/18568-supercell-over-ruskington-lincs/ Some fairly cruddy images of the thunderstorm that passed between Sleaford and Lincoln earlier this evening, taken on my phone from the train. Apols for the quality, bit gives some indication of the scale of it.

You're right as I'm passing just to the east of it now. It's enormous. I've got a few pics I'll forward. No rain or hail but thunder and lightning frequent. Looked like some slight lowering or maybe scud clouds to the southern edge but didn't pick out any obvious rotation.

Paul how far north is it now? I've got some photos but the train isn't ideal. It must be 10km to my SW. I might do better from Lincoln in the car.

I'm on the train between sleaford and Lincoln Paul. I'll see what I can get.