jackpunch

And that's not accurate. Loftus in Cleveland measured a gust of 76mph, a remote radar station near Alnwick, Northumberland measured one at 99mph. Media now reporting 3 people dead as a result of the storm.

I've been a NW member for years, never post because I don't have any technical knowledge relating to Models. The model thread used to be an absolute superb read. Unfortunately, NW has become a victim of its own success. So many of the posts are unreadable, biased or just bickering. The number to times there's two posts back to back with completely polarised opinions of the latest output is ridiculous. I appreciate that there's always going to be a bit of a difference on how people interpret output but too much of what's posted is either outrageous ramping or being deliberately contrary.

I rarely post. I've had an account for 15 years and I reckon this is my 2nd post. When I joined the Model threads were full of really good assessments of the latest charts. Occasionally biased, but for the main very educational and great reading. Over the last few years as NW has become more popular it's diluted the quality massively unfortunately. Way, way too much "great charts at 168 blizzard conditions, power outages, country will grind to a halt, it reminds me of 1963"...juxtaposed with " Atlantic steaming through at 168, hairdryer conditions, say goodbye to winter"...now why is that. Is it people have less understanding or too many people see what they want to or too many people seeking attention hence post some bonkers extremes irrespective of it legitimacy. Regardless, a times the Model thread is almost unreadable. Which is such a shame given how it used to be.

Thank you kindly

Off to Chamonix in a couple of weeks. I've just had a look at the forecast on accuweather, and they are predicting a serious warm up. Temps up to 10 or 11. Any signs that this is valid or is the cold looking set?

Cheers mate, much appreciated. I'm hoping Nick S gets back online tomorrow so we'll get to hear how bad it was as well as getting his excellent input into the latest model output, which is starting to look interesting again.

Hi - First post on Netweather as my meteorological knowledge is extremely limited. However, I must say that I don't think that this has anything at all to do with the infrastructure of the South West of France/Northern Spain. As has already been pointed out, storms of this sort of intensity tend to hit the relatively sparsely populated areas of the UK - had this hit the South and South East of England, it would have made the news for the next 3 weeks. I've holidayed down in the South West of France many times and I suspect that the Pyrenees Atlantiques, Landes, and Gironde get very similar storms to the South West of England. I know that the thunderstorms have played havoc with my golf schedule when I've been down there ! Keep up the good work everyone, this is the best weather site on the web by a mile