The Great Storm of 27/28th October

[steveaki13]

So we have a semi big storm on its way here in Southern UK, but watch the news coverage and its like we have had a hurricane warning. :rolleyes:

I liked the quote on BBC News "The coastguard have closed the coast" :D

Anyway not meaning to mock anyone who is affected by the storm. I thought it would be interesting if people in the UK posted their storm updates, like on the weather report thread.

I am here in East Anglia and as of 11:30pm. We have had some rain and gusty wind, but yet to see anything damaging.

[rjbetty]

Oh it's the same here (I'm staying in Bedfordshire tonight). Raining and windy etc. I was out in this for a few hours at work earlier. :(

No hurricanes though...

[Storm]

The greatest storm of 28th Oct was in 2003 (on the sun) ;)

http://sxi.ngdc.noaa.gov/sxi_greatest.html

No I am not being a nerd but I was infact on tha site when I saw this thread (getting something related to the big big giant Solar flare of that day)

[rjbetty]

Hmmm good stuff.

Well over here, the dogs are barking and have woken me up. It appears the house is now almost blowing away! It's still raining too.

[BleAivano]

Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) have issued a red class 3 alert for the entire
Swedish west coast. http://www.smhi.se/vadret/vadret-i-sverige/Varningar

A class 2 alert for the rest of western part of souther Sweden and a yellow alert for
the eastern part of southern Sweden.

[Dave B]

Here in Kent I've had a rattan table blow over, and my boy's space hopper has gone right down the other end of the garden. Oh the humanity!

It's the news channels I feel sorry for: they've clearly sent all their reporters out to exposed bits of coast hoping for dramatic footage of waves crashing over their upturned umbrellas as they desperately try to convey the destruction; but in reality there's just a bloke on a sunny Brighton beach watching people walk their dogs in the breeze. You can feel their disappointment. No doubt Sky News will be prising open Kay Burley's crypt and sending her off to make poor people cry, but other than that it's a non-event.

Joking apart, I think we got lucky as the storm passed quicker than expected at far less intensity. Now cue all the moaners complaining that the forecasters don't know what they're talking about.

[BleAivano]

Webcam from Northern Jylland: http://live.waves4you.de/ucam/index.html

[BleAivano]

German webcam from Helgoland: http://livespotting.tv/stream/helgoland/#

[BleAivano]

Real time wind & weather report map worldwide
currently winds averaging on 20m/s or more in Southern Denmark.
http://www.windfinder.com/weather-maps/ ... .198/9.261 (http://www.windfinder.com/weather-maps/report/#8/55.198/9.261)

[BleAivano]

a picture from the Netherlands (source (https://twitter.com/BartNootebos/status/394795035369435136/photo/1/large)):

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BXqX_iSIYAAQWm8.jpg

[henners88]

So we have a semi big storm on its way here in Southern UK, but watch the news coverage and its like we have had a hurricane warning. :rolleyes:

I liked the quote on BBC News "The coastguard have closed the coast" :D

Anyway not meaning to mock anyone who is affected by the storm. I thought it would be interesting if people in the UK posted their storm updates, like on the weather report thread.

I am here in East Anglia and as of 11:30pm. We have had some rain and gusty wind, but yet to see anything damaging.
Drove to work this morning left at 5.45am rather than the usual 6am because I was expecting a lot of debris on the roads and high winds. There was some flooding in Cardiff, but apart from that everything was fine. Just a normal rainy winters day in Wales!

Still, it is better to be prepared and have warnings than nothing at all. :)

[Mark]

It's good to take precautions etc but I can't help thinking it's been a massive over reaction, we get storms several times every winter. Did all the train services into and out of London need to be shut down at rush hour on a Monday morning?

[BleAivano]

It's good to take precautions etc but I can't help thinking it's been a massive over reaction, we get storms several times every winter. Did all the train services into and out of London need to be shut down at rush hour on a Monday morning?

The problem is that its very difficult to know in advance just how severe it will be and what exact route
that it will take which is why they usually overreact when it comes to official warnings.

Eastern Denmark and South Western Sweden seems to have been hit harder then expected.
Despite that Meteorologists issued class 2 and class 3 warnings.
Average wind strength at over 30m/s with gusts going up to 45-50m/s.

The very strong winds and the turbulence it creates have caused allot of problems for
the Malmö Sturup airport. Forcing flights to divert. Luckily its a quite small airport with low traffic volume.

[GridGirl]

I hope travel into London is disrupted tomorrow. I don't much fancy a stupidly busy trip to London tomorrow just to give a 30 minute presentation seeing as my colleague is probably going to throw a sickie so she doesn't have to go.

[D-Type]

I hope travel into London is disrupted tomorrow. I don't much fancy a stupidly busy trip to London tomorrow just to give a 30 minute presentation seeing as my colleague is probably going to throw a sickie so she doesn't have to go.
Beat her to it and throw your sickie first ;)

From the look of it the storm's blown past England so you won't be able to use it as an excuse.

[D-Type]

It's good to take precautions etc but I can't help thinking it's been a massive over reaction, we get storms several times every winter. Did all the train services into and out of London need to be shut down at rush hour on a Monday morning?
I'm not sure that it was an over-reaction. We've had at least two separate fatalities which provides an indication of the severity of the storm.

The problem the railway faces is that if a tree blows down on a line it's blocked until they can get a road-railer mobilised to go to the nearest access point and then along the line to deal with it. If it's overhead electrification even relatively small trees can bring the lines down making it a bigger job to than just cutting up a fallen tree. Surprisingly, in the long run it's less disruption to cancel the trains to give the repair crew a clear run rather than requiring them to work around stopped trains. And, to be fair, they have got a limited service up and running by lunchtime.

[BleAivano]

It's good to take precautions etc but I can't help thinking it's been a massive over reaction, we get storms several times every winter. Did all the train services into and out of London need to be shut down at rush hour on a Monday morning?
I'm not sure that it was an over-reaction. We've had at least two separate fatalities which provides an indication of the severity of the storm.

The problem the railway faces is that if a tree blows down on a line it's blocked until they can get a road-railer mobilised to go to the nearest access point and then along the line to deal with it. If it's overhead electrification even relatively small trees can bring the lines down making it a bigger job to than just cutting up a fallen tree. Surprisingly, in the long run it's less disruption to cancel the trains to give the repair crew a clear run rather than requiring them to work around stopped trains. And, to be fair, they have got a limited service up and running by lunchtime.


I also think that it's better for the passengers to wait at home or at the railway stations then in a stranded
train in the middle of the forest where it's difficult to evacuate passengers and to access the rails.

[steveaki13]

It's good to take precautions etc but I can't help thinking it's been a massive over reaction, we get storms several times every winter. Did all the train services into and out of London need to be shut down at rush hour on a Monday morning?
I'm not sure that it was an over-reaction. We've had at least two separate fatalities which provides an indication of the severity of the storm.

The problem the railway faces is that if a tree blows down on a line it's blocked until they can get a road-railer mobilised to go to the nearest access point and then along the line to deal with it. If it's overhead electrification even relatively small trees can bring the lines down making it a bigger job to than just cutting up a fallen tree. Surprisingly, in the long run it's less disruption to cancel the trains to give the repair crew a clear run rather than requiring them to work around stopped trains. And, to be fair, they have got a limited service up and running by lunchtime.

I agree with you. I think the railways get too much stick on days like this.

Take out what you think of the railways in general, and on days like this they have thousands of miles of track to check and clear of logs and tree's which unlike on a road cant just be driven too and cut up.

As you said that's amazing they can sort it in a few hours. Afterall tree's on roads will be there for days. Then add in the fact that any damage to rails, signals or overhead lines will need replacing, then all in all its not easy.

So to have a near normal service back within 12 hours is pretty good going.

People always expect miracles but when all said and done, its workers who work hard and get it all back on track as quick as they do. Not computers or money or politicians.

[Mark]

http://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1377330_515444251885522_1560317263_n.jpg

[henners88]

Although for most of us it was an over reaction, to two families it was the worst storm ever as they lost loved ones. That was just in the UK. Some of Europe had it a lot worse than us and there were fatalities too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24705734

[steveaki13]

Henners is right.

I mean we make light, but we must remember condolences to the familys who lost members.

The unusual thing about that storm apparently was that it was only just developing as it hit the south west UK, and by the time it passed us and moved to Europe it was a lot bigger and more powerful.

[555-04Q2]

How did you guys weather the storm? Hope all are okay and none of our forum members were hurt, lost homes etc :)

[D-Type]

No problems here (S London) - a lot of wind overnight, but no trees on the house (although we have had two in previous years), no tiles off the roof, no fence panels down. I work part time and it was one of my days off anyway so not even problems commuting.

[555-04Q2]

Glad to hear that :)