Stormy Weather

[vinteuil]

... hic?...

... hic et nunc!

Et nunc est bibendum

.
[ but preferably not that nauseating mouthwash, "whisky"... ]

[BBMmk2]

Horrible here. Not too bad early on, then rain and wind increased. The local weather station reports we've had 21.5mm rain so far today and wind constant at just under 30mph gusting at 50mph. I'm just on the edge of the Met Office map where the amber meets the yellow warning! It's also very gloomy and limited visibility, I thought it may be easing but it's still tipping down. Looks like it'll be a rough night though but drier tomorrow.

There's also a nasty throat infection going around here leading to a lingering hacking cough, a friend's been very poorly with it for a fortnight. BBM - give Mrs. BBM some hot whisky toddies!!

Poor ams!! :( I might offer here brandy instead as she doesn't like whisky! :(

[amateur51]

... hic et nunc!

Et nunc est bibendum

.
[ but preferably not that nauseating mouthwash, "whisky"... ]

Oh dear, Son of Throppers Strikes Again?

[Mary Chambers]

Car journey from NW to SE England this morning could have been much worse. It was windy, but not alarmingly so. The further south we got the worse the rain was. There was a lot of spray, which hindered vision a bit, but the motorways weren't at all crowded and it was really an easy journey. The wind was more violent this evening here in Bucks, and we've read there are some trees down.

[teamsaint]

Its really horrible here. Lots of rain, strong winds tonight.
But the kids are home for Xmas, wine is open,and some CDs have turned up in the post .

[Petrushka]

A fair bit of rain here today but the winds have been nowhere near as bad as the forecast led us to believe. BBC forecasts seem to me to be unduly alarmist, perhaps taking their cue from the Daily Express. There seems to me to be more than a touch of exaggeration so that no-one can turn round and say they 'missed the hurricane'. The knock on effect of all this is that the train operators cancel trains without making any attempt to get them going in the first place and people get unnecessarily worried.

There was hardly any wind at all here at 8am and while it got a bit wilder later on it had calmed down to next to nothing by 5.30pm. I've known much. much worse on what would be classed as a 'normal' day with none of this 'yellow', 'amber' or 'red' warnings business.

[Anna]

A bit more than a normal wintry day here - rain eased off between 3-8pm but total today now 34.5mm (around 1 1/2"), still tipping it down, high winds and - we are now on a flood warning for the local river (about 5 mins walk away) which which was already high, when it floods closes the one and only direct road in and out of here

[Serial_Apologist]

A bit more than a normal wintry day here - rain eased off between 3-8pm but total today now 34.5mm (around 1 1/2"), still tipping it down, high winds and - we are now on a flood warning for the local river (about 5 mins walk away) which which was already high, when it floods closes the one and only direct road in and out of here

But no wind? Here it blew so hard half an hour ago I thought my lounge windows would go, and have drawn all the curtains and kitchen blinds for the first time since last winter's freeze, closed my bedroom door and moved into my spare, N-facing room. The winds are still forecast to peak around 3-4 am, I guess with the passage of the cold front, after which they'll switch round to the west, with some shelter from the tall building next door, and probably die down.

I'm probably being alarmist about all this.

[Stillhomewardbound]

'Storm Hits UK' reads the BBC headline. Oh, no it doesn't!!! This cyclone is taking in much of Northern Europe. As a Met Office spokesperson said, 'it's about as big as it gets'.

[Anna]

But no wind? Here it blew so hard half an hour ago I thought my lounge windows would go, and have drawn all the curtains and kitchen blinds for the first time since last winter's freeze, closed my bedroom door and moved into my spare, N-facing room. The winds are still forecast to peak around 3-4 am, I guess with the passage of the cold front, after which they'll switch round to the west, with some shelter from the tall building next door, and probably die down.

I'm probably being alarmist about all this.

Scary stuff S_A, I find the best solution is to turn the music up louder! Yes, there were more galeforce winds here, a fence panel, hanging by a thread which I thought I had wedged safely last night - this morning was again hanging by a thread with the heavy wooden plank I had bracing it completely dislodged, so I redid that this am.

The river came well and truly over in the early hours, road closed, some local flooding of homes, a pub has landed up with 4' of water inside (and all the Christmas lunches they had booked consequently cancelled), plus near the weather station (about 5km away) two people rescued from car in flood water by firecrew in a boat! I grabbed a lift first thing from a neighbour to town and back (involves going the long way round and subsequent chaos of traffic on single-track), even when the river recedes the road cannot be opened until the Council scrape off the inches of mud desposited. Luckily I've never had to work Christmas Eve so I'm now home for the duration having done the last of the shopping and looking forward to the 9 Lessons & Carols from Kings this pm. Torrential rain again early on, now on-off bright intervals.

[eighthobstruction]

Sharp wind here....but at 1000hrs sky pretty clear and visibility high....

[DracoM]

Ditto here in Ultima Thule. At the moment!!

[amateur51]

After a bleak morning of dark grey clouds, strong winds and blustery often quite heavy rain, suddenly it's dry, the clouds are lightening and there's a crack in them to show some sunshine! Quite cold because of the wind too.

Happy Christmas Eve

[Serial_Apologist]

SE London seems to hae been quite badly hit - trains not operating, fallen trees, flooding, and in the immediate vicinity quantities of large branches strewn all about the place. My computer whizz, who lives in St Mary Cray - over salymap's way - had the entire roof blown off the block of flats where he lives. Some of it landed on the nearby main road, damaging a couple of vehicles though luckily no injuries. He's about to leave to spend Christmas in Reading, but tells me he's blocked in by a large crane the freeholders to the block (a housing association) have parked out front. Nothing has yet been done to protect the upper floors exposed to the elements: this being quite a large 4-storey block with about six flats, at the top level, they've had to move them all out to b&b's, but water is seeping through to the lower floors, and all the electric and gas have been disconnected.

We're lucky if not affected, though in Anna's case it seems to have been a close shave. I'm hoping when saly gets back home it is not to damage.

Beautiful sunset, as often happens in disturbed weather conditions - in this instance caused by the sun illuminating the undersides of the retreating back edge cloud to yesterday's storm, which must be one of the widest frontal cloud shields I've ever observed.

[marthe]

That strong wind must have been scary. We've been through a few gales and hurricanes over here so I can only imagine what it's been like for those who were in the path of the storm. Today it's cloudy, breezy, but not raining. Our temps are supposed to dive down into the teens/twenties F for Christmas Day.