South East England & East Anglia Regional Weather Discussion 13/02/14

[<<Ryan>>]

woken by a massive hail shower here, looked out and everything is white. Shame it's not snow. 

[alexisj9]

Morning all.

 

Loads of posts since I last properly looked, so will go through what I can.

 

Looking at some gust figures from official stations, reasonably close to me, I can see that likely wind gusts were in the mid sixties miles per hour overnight, so a reasonable windstorm here, although not spectacular.

 

I've just been on a twenty mile cross country drive, including a detour to the coast, which has quite a lot of trees beside it, to assess damage. There were a fair amount of snapped off twigs and small branches to be seen, but nothing larger. I could see a few mobile road signs which had been blown over too.

 

I was at my brother's house last night and couldn't really hear the wind there, which surprised me. He must have been sheltered. Before that, I was in Colchester until about 1:00 and it was very gusty.

 

No damage at home and the winds aren't all that strong now, so I'm hopefully unscathed.

 

I'd say this was number 3 in the wind strength table here, for this Autumn and Winter, with the late October storm in first place and the pre Christmas Eve storm in second. Unless I see something major, like a big tree felled, I'll have forgotten this one, in a few months.

The worst one here so far, (I'm not convinced there will be no more storms until the USA warms up as it's the temp diferences between the cold USA and the warmth in the south that have made so many storms this year), I would put the christmas one, as that had 70mph for quite a while here and kept arcing my electric.

 

Then the October storm which TBH did do more damage but only people on Vodafone or fishermen would have noticed it, and the 80MPH winds only lasted about 10 mins.

 

Then this one, the winds have been relentless but have not been as strong as the other two.

 

Not sure I will forget any of them though, but which ever storms people remember this year for whatever reason, I'm pretty sure none of us will forget this winter. Let's hope it's a once in a life time experience.

Edited February 15, 2014 by alexisj9

[Steve C]

The worst one here so far, (I'm not convinced there will be no more storms until the USA warms up as it's the temp diferences between the cold USA and the warmth in the south that have made so many storms this year), I would put the christmas one, as that had 70mph for quite a while here and kept arcing my electric.

 

Then the October storm which TBH did do more damage but only people on Vodafone or fishermen would have noticed it, and the 80MPH winds only lasted about 10 mins.

 

Then this one, the winds have been relentless but have not been as strong as the other two.

 

Not sure I will forget any of them though, but which ever storms people remember this year for whatever reason, I'm pretty sure none of us will forget this winter. Let's hope it's a once in a life time experience.

 

Yes, I think the fact I was likely in a zone of hurricane force gusts in the October one, made the difference for me. I appreciate that for most it wouldn't have been such a deal.

 

Agree about the potential for windstorms being far from over. Even without the current factors you've mentioned, we've a way to go yet. There was a far more severe gale than anything we've experienced in the south in mid March 1947 and I can remember a gale on 24th March 1986, which gave a 93 mph gust in Cardington, Bedfordshire - I particularly remember the date, as an old friend was celebrating his 18th birthday.

 

Actually, probably the biggest weather event near here this period and one which was caused by strong winds hundreds of miles away, was the storm surge. All in all, quite a remarkable winter overall.

Edited February 15, 2014 by Steve C

[Atlantis]

Well, that was a night that I do not wish to repeat in a hurry. Some of the gusts last night were extremely scary! The house shook on a number of occasions. Haven't yet done an assessment of the damage in the back garden, but the outside light by my front door had the top of it blown off, just about missing my sons car. There are numerous bits of small branches and debris in the road.

It has been grey and gusty here with squally rain at times, but the skies are making an effort to brighten.

Having just watched the news, I think we may have been fortunate not to sustain greater damage last night. I hope everyone made it through the night relatively unscathed, and my thoughts go out to those who perhaps have not been so lucky. It certainly brings home just how powerful nature can be.

Let's hope we are moving into a period of calmer weather!

Have a good Saturday everyone.

[Jason T]

Morning all. Hope everyone ok..Very wild night indeed. Disruption to services through out.

 

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/today.aspx

 

 

Environment Agency

Sirens have been sounded in Chiswell to warn people of severe flood warning and strong winds.

 

 

 

UK Power Networks â€

Look at our LIVE power cut map

 

Highways Agency 

Morning! Yes, still v windy. Bridges QE2 Dartford, Sheppey, Orwell and Severn Suspension remain closed

[alexisj9]

Another hail shower here.

[SteveCoops]

Finally found a parking space near work next door to the Gherkin when some bloke comes out with a camera saying don't park there!! Look up and he's taking a photo of a huge pane of glass hanging by a thread 8 floors up above the car! Needless to say I've moved the car now.... bet I get a ticket now though for parking not in a bay.

[Jax]

Morning all

 

Wild, wet and windy has been the theme for us the last few hours it seems, very gusty here still too, and a few short sharp showers thrown into the mix just for a giggle.

 

And by days cold light I can see what the noise was last night, the garden (front and back) has been re-arranged for me (that's nice) so looks like I will be on clean up a bit later when things finally calm down.

 

Working today and phone has been running hot since 07:00 with various problems related to the weather for our sites across the UK, all seem to be power or network related, so no suprise there then.

[knightrider]

The worst one here so far, (I'm not convinced there will be no more storms until the USA warms up as it's the temp diferences between the cold USA and the warmth in the south that have made so many storms this year), I would put the christmas one, as that had 70mph for quite a while here and kept arcing my electric. Then the October storm which TBH did do more damage but only people on Vodafone or fishermen would have noticed it, and the 80MPH winds only lasted about 10 mins. Then this one, the winds have been relentless but have not been as strong as the other two. Not sure I will forget any of them though, but which ever storms people remember this year for whatever reason, I'm pretty sure none of us will forget this winter. Let's hope it's a once in a life time experience.

Well I'll remember this 1 above all the others as for from my location not only has it been the most prolonged storm lasting all night and still going although not as severe as earlier but it's also been the strongest. St Jude max gust from my weather station was 55mph, 23rd December we had 59mph and last night we had 63mph so it was the most intense from my perspective probably the biggest storm since March 2004 so nearly a decade since we last had something that wild.

[Steve C]

Finally found a parking space near work next door to the Gherkin when some bloke comes out with a camera saying don't park there!! Look up and he's taking a photo of a huge pane of glass hanging by a thread 8 floors up above the car! Needless to say I've moved the car now.... bet I get a ticket now though for parking not in a bay.

From the Gherkin itself? I remember a window popping out from it a few years back. If it's happened again, the building sounds like it has issues.

[Jax]

Well this is interesting, trying to do site to site networking solutions and I have now lost my site to site networking connectivity (it is going to be a loooooong morning)

[Lauren]

It's still going here. Not as strong, but plenty strong enough!

[Tilly]

Good morning all  YAWN!

 

Hope everyone is ok and hasnt sufffered too much damage after last night!

 

Still a bit gusty in Faversham. I tried sleeping at 11pm and set my alarm for 1am but it wasn't needed through that racket. I sat in bed from 12 until about 4 eating biscuits and wondering if the windows were going to be ripped off the hinges, as you do.

 

I cant see any immediate damage here apart from big branches off the trees and more trees are now creeking in the wind. I think St Judes was definately more ferocious but last nights was much longer lasting. The wind always seems much worse at night as you cant see so your other senses compensate for that and it seems worse. Thats my theory anyway. 

[knightrider]

I'm still to witness anything as unforgettably frightening as October 2000 when we had mean winds of about 45-50mph with gusts of 85-90mph+ the sound from that was just psychopathic!

[SteveCoops]

From the Gherkin itself? I remember a window popping out from it a few years back. If it's happened again, the building sounds like it has issues.

No - building next door to it.

 

Yeah I was up here that weekend when that happened - scary!

[Long haul to mild]

For this autumn/winter, it's a Bronze medal here for this storm, just missing out on Silver (taken by Dec 23). Gold went comfortably to St Jude.

Hope that's it for storms now, everyone's had quite enough I'm sure!

[NO LONGER POSTING]

They can't fix power lines in flooded areas due to safety reasons well that's fantastic due to my Area 80% flooded could be off for a long time, shed rood down the bottom of the garden..

[chilly milly]

Morning all!

 

Pretty unscathed here, although I have lost my Christmas tree, pot an' all.  I shall take a walk later to see if I can track it down.

 

Currently 8.1c here with pressure at 981hPa.  Wind speed average 30mph and highest gust was 60mph.

[knightrider]

The sun is out here still windy though gusts to about 40mph at the moment.

[knightrider]

For this autumn/winter, it's a Bronze medal here for this storm, just missing out on Silver (taken by Dec 23). Gold went comfortably to St Jude.Hope that's it for storms now, everyone's had quite enough I'm sure!

Hmmm....St Jude was very overhyped and passed in the blink of an eye, the gusts probably seemed stronger because the trees where still in full leaf which makes them sway more and makes them more vulnerable. If this storm had struck in October the damage to plantation would have been much greater!

[Steve C]

On a lighter note, I popped into Tesco this morning for a shop and saw boxes of 12 creme eggs for £2, so thought I'd buy 4 boxes, for nieces and nephews for Easter. However Easter is still more than 2 months away and I always liked creme eggs...

 

(struggling to make this post any sort of weather related. )

[Long haul to mild]

Hmmm....St Jude was very overhyped and passed in the blink of an eye, the gusts probably seemed stronger because the trees where still in full leaf which makes them sway more and makes them more vulnerable. If this storm had struck in October the damage to plantation would have been much greater!

 

Morning Knightrider

 

I can assure you St Jude was worth the hype here; the strongest winds since 1987 that I can remember, 77mph recorded locally, albeit in a contained two hour spell. Last night's winds are like a weakly blown raspberry in comparison

 

However, Jude was quite localised due to a narrow sting jet which blew West to East across Eastern counties north of London. Suffolk and North Essex were two of the worst hit.

[Steve C]

Hmmm....St Jude was very overhyped and passed in the blink of an eye, the gusts probably seemed stronger because the trees where still in full leaf which makes them sway more and makes them more vulnerable. If this storm had struck in October the damage to plantation would have been much greater!

 

The gusts were actually very strong in October here. 79mph at Andrewsfield, an inland site and other inland hurricane force gusts too in Suffolk. I was actually outside in it as well and believe me, trees in full leaf weren't the only issue.

 

I tried to take a video of it at its worst, but due to a large tree falling down near me and the general roar of it all, my hands were shaking too much, to publish anything. I was also swearing at myself for being such an idiot too.

[loopydreamer]

Blustery outside there now with sime rain

[loopydreamer]

Oooooh squally ...