Evening thunder

The wind has eased off back home now but there was a gust of 54mph on my home weather station in the valley, highest I've recorded (beating 6th Jan shower squall at 51mph). 10 minute average was 37mph too so almost an inland gale at my station.. not had that before (since getting station in 2007) Slightly surprised to see the amber warning now as it gives winds the same as, or slightly lower than was forecast and was had by the SW this evening under the yellow warning. Was watching a webcam local to home this evening, at Sidmouth sea front. Some crazy waves at times with you not being able to see anything due to the spray going right over building height, and waves coming right over the road and down into the town which sits significantly lower than the road/sea wall.. which didn't look too good.. A few images I print-screened from the website with the webcam: It has flooded in the past but can't remember seeing/hearing of it like that in recent years at least. This tide was forecast to be 0.6m lower than Monday morning too (though wasn't due to a higher surge height), it could have been a lot worse had this storm occurred on Monday morning.. Wet snow last night (lasted to the morning in Honiton) to a storm tonight, though up here in Egham it's just wet and a bit breezy of course.

Weather station back home just recorded 50mph, that's higher than anything in December and was beaten only by the 6th January, when a heavy shower gave a surprise 51mph gust when I was out (which is my record high since getting the station in 2007, at least for now..)

Well various friends around my home area recently reported it was snowing.. on relatively low ground in east Devon. Typically I just got back to uni. I did notice the Met Office temp map showed a sharp drop in temp down to 1-2c with a heavy pulse of precipitation like this, so wondered if there might be a bit of wintriness. Was in Exmouth this morning though which got a bit flooded.. These were after it had gone down a bit especially the last 2.

For my home patch this is looking a bit stronger than anything else this winter (or Autumn) for S/E Devon and around Lyme Bay, with a SSE component to the wind so more exposed too. The Met Office currently go for 73mph gusts at Sidmouth, and 68mph at Exeter. This is slightly higher than we had in December when the strongest winds along the south coast seemed to develop slightly east of us.

Nice dusting up on Dartmoor: http://www.dartcom.co.uk/dartcam/index.php

Very wet/unsettled, interesting at times, thundery for January.

Bit of a silly headline.. but then it is the daily fail. The one thing I think it is good with is pictures, but anyway surely it's primarily the weather's mess? I'd like to see some sources/references for it's figures and experts too. Ah just seen they think Britain is braced for a 'big FREEZE' now.. lol. Should more money be available? I think so yes, I'm just not sure it will have quite the effect some desire unfortunately. Mind you not sure the Environment agency's money is best spent always (local case near me last year of something not needed, just done to use spare EU funding according to links to internal sources) and Mr Patterson is perhaps not the most logical person to be head of an environment agency, saw a comment on the independent 'Owen Patterson in charge of the Environment portfolio is like putting Gary Glitter in charge of Children's Services' Never mind, Mr. Cameron to the rescue. "It means national guidelines from the 1990s which stopped regular dredging of rivers are likely to be torn up." I guess this is what I'm worried about. When ever any river floods elsewhere, we may see cries for dredging just because a river did what it naturally does and always has done, ruining the look/feel/ecology etc of the river just so some fields won't flood or houses occasionally wont (but probably will in reality). Already seen a few comments like this. If this change is only for the levels due to realization they are not appropriate for them due to their specific circumstances (low elevation etc) then I'm fine with that. Sadly some without geography knowledge may think otherwise in different areas. Dredging will have various environmental impact around the levels but we may have to live with that in this case. Number one factor has to be rainfall? it may not be acceptable but it may be unavoidable at times. Partly because it sounds good and is more likely to please the locals and looks like they are doing something, perhaps partly because it may be part of the solution and other options may take longer so may be not so much else available in the short term. A longer term option to use as well may be something like this higher in the river catchments (posted by Knocker on the last page) http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/item/natural-engineering-offers-solution-against-future-flooding Still won't prevent all flood flows though.

I'm a little delayed posting this reply but shall now Yes I was not thinking many trees had recently been removed, if anything more planting projects these days. Just saying this could perhaps contribute to reducing the surface run off component, meaning lower more drawn out flood peaks, which may mean the rivers over spill the banks less often. Though you would need a widespread catchment response and I am not sure how feasible that would be. I just thought some of the ideas may be useful. I am not sure how much truth there is in a few of the things perhaps. It is true though that it would not stop some flooding in situations like this, we may have to accept that areas like that flood sometimes. A large engineering project of widened/new channels may reduce it significantly but I can't really see the funding being released for that. There have been a few silly comments e.g from here though http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25908098 I.e from the MP: "He dismissed as "pathetic" the Environment Agency's claims that the rain would have overwhelmed the river system even if it had dredged the waterways." Ok so you really think that one of the wettest, perhaps the wettest, year on record in 2012 and then one of the wettest Decembers and Januaries on record now wouldn't have caused flooding, and that this 65 million cubic meters of water covering vast areas would have fitted in the channels? Peak levels may have been slightly lower/less prolonged I don't know. ""It is an absolutely ridiculous excuse," he said. "This never flooded to this level ever in living memory, and we've got people who have been here for a long time. If you look back into the mists of time you don't have this." That would surprise me to be honest, perhaps this is rare due to exceptional wetness, but I suspect major flooding has happened in the past.. and it used to be a general marshland.. It is described as a wetland and some of it lies lower than peak tides in the Bristol Channel, so drainage would always be a struggle (again an argument for dredging perhaps but that won't raise the land, or river gradients, leading greatly to increased flow rates..). The gauging stations available don't show record heights recently at least where they are located. Also when water over-tops the often man made levees, it often can't get back in without pumping anyway. I wonder how sustainable agriculture there actually is/will be in some parts of the levels in the future? When you watch the areal footage most houses/villages seem on ridges or islands of slightly higher ground surrounded by water rather than flooded themselves. There's a reason for that.. It may have to stop as some say, but I doubt that will be possible to stop flooding or ensure major floods don't happen again to be honest.

Surprisingly back home (east Devon) this winter has recorded more air frosts than last winter... (only one more mind) but then I don't rate last winter that highly there, especially in the minema department. Indeed this January also had a lower minema (-2.7c) than last January or Februaries rubbish -2.4c. A mis-conception I've seen is that this winter/weather has been dull, I believe at least averaged nationally December and January have been at least slightly sunnier than average so far, and probably more sunny than last winter (at least down this way).

This may be interesting to some: http://www.flickr.com/photos/environment-agency/12187472774/in/photostream/ Rainfall anomaly for the 23rd December to 5th January, shows how wet it was for the south. Would be interesting to see such a map for a more extended period over the last couple of months.

To be honest, I'm not sure how effective dredging will be, some of the reasons why are shown here http://www.ourcityourriver.co.uk/downloads/Dredging%20Leaflet.pdf To increase the flow capacity of the channel much, you would probably need to dredge continuously quite a long way downstream (as the levels are basically flat and near sea level so any constraint would likely reduce flow for a long way upstream), but this may not be possible due to bridges and other constraints where for example widening and deepening the channel may undermine the foundations. The dredged channels may just provide slightly more capacity that isn't enough to cope with any real floods... think of the amount of water on the floodplains at the moment, that won't fit in a channel during flood peaks at least. More likely dredging would destroy the environment/ecosystem of the river with limited benefits. Also rivers find a natural equilibrium themselves for a certain flow, if you increase the depth the flow velocity slows and more sediment is deposited filling the dredged areas back in, so repeat dredging would be required at increased cost. Also dredging may increase flood peaks to places lower down the river. Considering the area is basically reclaimed land, it is always going to flood perhaps for extended periods with weather like now, with water being slow to drain away. However on the other hand, because the Somerset Levels are not naturally suitable for agriculture, the rivers perhaps need to be held in an unnatural state to keep the area farmable in the same way as recent times. The rivers there are often modified and straightened anyway with artificial drainage channels too, I doubt I'd mind if the rivers there are dredged if that's what is really needed and it is actually effective. But what I do find annoying is for example, one guy claiming the river Mole in Surrey had been 'mis managed' and it should be dredged ruining the feel, environment and ecology of the river just so his home, which he chose to buy and live in on a floodplain, wouldn't get flooded occasionally in exceptional events (in reality it still would). If my local river (at home in Devon) was dredged I'd be very annoyed, but that's a different kind of system with a larger gradient and floods recede off fields within a day.. so there would really be no reason for it (but some would probably think it was a good idea somehow, I guess I'm just worried this thing will be spread by people with no geography education or environmental consideration) In my opinion in the majority of cases rivers shouldn't be dredged just to try and stop floodplains flooding (it would cause problems for downstream locations if they were) Obviously for certain locations in urban areas. or exceptions like the Somerset Levels it may be a different matter. Perhaps a better method (perhaps even used in conjunction with any needed dredging) would be to reduce the amount of water reaching rivers quickly. For example by planting trees along the edges of fields or places runoff is common on the surrounding hills and catchment, as under trees water is absorbed by the ground 67 times faster than on grass.. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/flooding-public-spending-britain-europe-policies-homes http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/river-dredging.html#cr May be the Guardian or wildlife sites which I get the feeling some may not like so much, but that's where most facts/stories of this kind tend to be. Umm, not sure how I wrote so much really..

Only had about 5mm of rain back home, less than forecast and lighter than it appeared from the radar. That could have been a relatively local effect in the lee of Dartmoor though.

Can't remember seeing something this active/widespread in January before, at least not recently. Been a thundery winter though, had 4 days of thunder or (distant) lightning this year and could have been 5 if I hadn't gone back to uni, also had thunder days up here before I returned. Biggest storm in Europe by far.. Savour that for the summer months when all the MCS systems may be just across the water haha

Surprisingly at home this month has had a colder min temp than last January and Februaries poor effort, and more air frosts than last January. However last Jan had an ice day, whereas this year has had no maxima below 8c so far! Overall though it has been mild, though only 0.7c warmer in terms of average temp so far compared to last January (6.4c vs 5.7c). This is the mean of all readings not the traditional max+min method though. So far it looks to have been sunnier too. Edited to correct this months mean temp

Not posted for a while here, but the monthly total back home is up to 178.4mm according to the Davis, though I do think it could be reading a tad too high. However last Thursday there was a line of heavy showers for a few hours with 21.8mm for the day, and apparently the stream across the lane flooded the road and a few cm into the drive, which hasn't happened before this Autumn/winter. Looking like we could make it over the 200mm mark before months end too. December was wet with 146.2mm though not exceptional. the River Otter flooded parts of the floodplain a few times though only like it does every year or two. Nothing like last year with 3 major flood events and 2 of them with 4 days when 152mm fell in 6 days. The highest accumulations and worst flooding this time has been further east on the whole. Yesterday had a min of -2.4c, and the 14th got down to -2.7c. Not very good for them to be the lowest mins in January, but that's colder than anything recorded in January or February last year, which both had absolute lows of a measly -2.4c.

Thanks for the replies The only suggestions I had found before were that NiCd were best rather than NiMH for the fan, but found a couple other threads with people (including one to Davis) saying NiMH were ok or they had used them and they worked fine, so think I'm gunna go with them now, although I probably won't get them changed before going back to uni tomorrow. I have thought about using external power for the fan though due to location (and perhaps in part I have no soldering experience), it isn't really a practical solution for me unfortunately. Would be nice though and thanks for the suggestion, It may just work from the garage if I was really determined in the future.

I am wondering if anyone has experience replacing these. It's been about 2 years since I got a 24 hours FARS ISS (replacement of my previous ISS and opted for FARS as I found a good deal (for the UK)), which is getting towards the time batteries may need replacing, and I have noticed the fan runs far less of the time in winter this year (it didn't run all the time in dull spells last winter either, which I know is normal in the UK). Looking around the internet I struggled to find the batteries it takes (1.2v NiCad C Cells) and it has come to my attention it is now illegal to sell these in the UK/EU.. Does anyone know where I can get some, or more likely suitable substitute batteries? I have looked around forums but can't find much on this. Would NiMH batteries or another type work? also would I be able to use a higher capacity battery than the 2300mAh ones supplied with the station to give a longer run time (e.g 3000mAh or 5000mAh) or would this have other less desirable effects on operation? I'm not sure if many will be able to answer all my questions but have struggled to find the info elsewhere, also I seem to have forgotten most of my battery knowledge from school.. Thanks in advance

Well that was a bit disappointing compared to what was showing on the radar further west into Cornwall. Only saw a few distant flashes with nothing near by, Meanwhile it kicks off the other side of me instead.. Just as I finish typing this a flash and a rumble! lol

Just had a brief monsoon for a few mins, torrential rain with very large drops. Station reckons max rain rate was 81.6mm/hr Just under a rain rate of 84.6mm/hr recorded at 10:20 this morning, which I wasn't here for but when I got home found had given a new record high gust for my station!! 51mph beating 50mph in Jan 2012 and 48mph recorded a few times this December. Very brief too as it didn't really make the average wind rise. Wonder what caused that, would have liked to have seen it. Did see some impressive waves in Sidmouth earlier though with very windy conditions. Apparently a sefric from another shower to my NW recently, though wasn't looking out the window so I didn't see anything. My mum said she saw lightning flashing last night from a cell out in the channel (at least 10 flashes) though I was asleep for most of it and only saw 1 flash. That's the 3rd day this year with distant lightning flashes seen.

Temp rose from 0.3c to 7.3c in 1 hour here this morning when the wind kicked in, and over 5c in 30 minutes. It tends to do that sometimes in the valley here. On the radar it looks as if the rain cleared here a while ago, however we have a persistent soaking fine rain and drizzle being blown sideways on the wind, that's not really showing on the radar. Rain rates mainly 1.5-3 mm/hr and water running down the road as like from a more 'normal' moderate rain. Total for the day so far is 5.8mm, but we've had more since the radar says it stopped than before. The stuff showing out west looks a bit interesting. Yesterday we had 12.0mm from the rain and a later shower, though most of it went slightly east of here again.

Brilliant sunrise here at the moment. Also still frosty in the valley here after a low of -0.6c, currently 0.1c I guess they say red sky in the morning..

Some pics I took down at Sidmouth this morning. Some quite impressive waves which had brought shingle over the promenade, though I did see a similar tide level with larger waves in June once (2012). Also a nice sun rise and some shower clouds and anvils around. I saw the CB's from the line of storms that passed north of here, didn't hear any thunder from them though due to being in Sidmouth. Some amazing hail reports especially for the time of year. There was a really intense echo (the highest possible on Netweather radar) 15-20 miles to the NNE this morning, Probably had some impressive hail in it. Got home and then there was some thunder to my south with a rain shower. Also saw a couple very distant flashes last night. Also this was the local river on New Years Day so quite a lot of weather around recently.

Certainly was very wet and windy this morning, wind seemed almost as strong as from any of the recent storms/lows here, though it's now eased a bit. Heavy rain slamming into my window woke me up early this morning, as did a heavy shower with hail doing the same around 4:30am. Even when the heavy rain has eased this morning we had what could perhaps be described as lashing drizzle, or fine-dropped rain. Although that had eased for a bit just now. I have already seen my first lightning of this year, as when being driven home about 1:30am I saw two flashes to the south, though looking at the radar they were pretty far out in the channel. It looks like I'd have seen more to the SSE if I'd been awake about 3:30am..

Looks like nature might provide it's own firework or two for someone tonight?

It's gone down quite a lot compared to yesterday, our rivers tend to rise or fall quite quickly here (though the Clyst is slower) so we shouldn't have any problems today as we didn't have much rain before the brief heavy bit this morning (2mm here today), though they may rise a tad later. Tomorrow may be slightly more concerning especially if we get lots of heavy showers tonight before the main rain tomorrow. I find this site quite good for local river levels http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120722.aspx (I tend to look at the Otter at Dotton) though lots of the graphs show 'flooding is possible' much before the river actually starts to flood.