Stormy Weather II

[DracoM]

Sorry to hear that, odders. Nasty experience - I hope you're feeling all right

Agreed. All best.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes thank you ff. My front patch is quite thick gravel rather than concrete so a "soft" landing from relatively low angle as I was just getting vertical from moving things around, and the bin only travelled a few inches to end up alongside me. No damage done but very disconcerting, it all happened so quickly and I felt completely powerless. I've had that sensation of a gust of wind suddenly stopping me in my tracks but never been pushed over like that, as if someone had cannoned into me.

There was news footage of two men being effectively scooped along a road in the centre of Croydon today, reminding me of the great 1990 storm which bent tall street lights at angles of 80 degrees and a low sign at the entrance to a park to 45 degrees, and almost prevented a group of us who had been inching our way up an incline clinging onto a chicken wire fence from crossing the main road when the bus had just dropped us off. It was a question of waiting until the wind eased for long enough to allow us to proceed, me grabbing the hand of a little old lady to help her across. Whole stands of mature trees were felled that day in scrubland near the Avon cut. Today's was less severe than that, possibly because here, we are somewhat sheltered here to the south west by the looming Crystal Palace ridge, the direction from which the strongest winds were coming until mid-afternoon, when they veered west and eased up a bit. I did go for a quick wander around the block just a it was getting dark, and was surprised to find little serious damage - mostly branches strewn about pavements and a couple of panel fences down. But I got caught in a torrential hailstorm just before reaching home! Glad to hear you escaped serious injury, odd one.

[oddoneout]

About halfway down this sequence of photos is one of someone taking advantage of the power of wind.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2022/feb/18/storm-eunice-batters-britain-in-pictures

Yes I was lucky SA, I was only inches away from a low brick wall which wouldn't have done my head any good!

[gradus]

Eunice delivered the coup de grace to our ancient greenhouse and has left the overhead electricity cable posts leaning merrily ... some girl.

[Joseph K]

Cold, dark and raining. Walk postponed.

[eighthobstruction]

....1200hrs....skipton nyorks....snow

[DracoM]

Snow a.m., sleet, then..................bright sun!!

[Serial_Apologist]

I hadn't realised when I circumambulated the garden in the dark last night that just to my right was lying prone the largest, at about 60 feet high, of our three Leylandii. Sadly it knocked one of the three main branches off a little apple tree which was put in about ten years ago. As our feudal overseer, the Dulwich College Estates regard all trees within their precinct as theirs, and lengthy procedures have to be gone through as to how they are to be looked after, how frequently pruned, and the tree surgeons to be employed for the purpose. We now have to consult with our property management company, who intercede with DC on these matters, and presumably with the insurance people. The three conifers formed a predominent feature on that side of the garden, so this is all very sad.

[Old Grumpy]

Snow a.m., sleet, then..................bright sun!!

Ditto, then freezing fog [here anyway]

[oddoneout]

The forecast has changed overnight and not for the better, the basic wind speeds having increased and so too the gusts - up to 50mph during the evening, possibly slightly more on Monday morning. It's supposed to be bin day then but that'll presumably be a guessing game as to whether it'll happen at all and on my part at what stage do I get it upright and take the bungee strap off. It's the general waste which is bagged so less off an issue if it comes out, and a better designed bin on which the lid is much less inclined to flip open in the first place.
There are snatches of sun and blue sky currently, it's mild and the rain due to hold off until early afternoon so a bit of a walk should be possible before lunch.

[BBMmk2]

The forecast has changed overnight and not for the better, the basic wind speeds having increased and so too the gusts - up to 50mph during the evening, possibly slightly more on Monday morning. It's supposed to be bin day then but that'll presumably be a guessing game as to whether it'll happen at all and on my part at what stage do I get it upright and take the bungee strap off. It's the general waste which is bagged so less off an issue if it comes out, and a better designed bin on which the lid is much less inclined to flip open in the first place.
There are snatches of sun and blue sky currently, it's mild and the rain due to hold off until early afternoon so a bit of a walk should be possible before lunch.

We are at Amber at the moment.

[Old Grumpy]

??

All yellow today with a small area of amber on NI tomorrow

[Serial_Apologist]

??

All yellow today with a small area of amber on NI tomorrow

I think so. As to the more severe immediate prognosis, I have to say this looked the most probable thing when I checked the forecast charts yesterday for today and tomorrow, and noted how tight the isobars (tramlines) were expected to be. In the past, generally, winds in low pressure systems tended to be at their maxima in warm sectors, slackening off with the passage of the cold front; these days it seems much more common for pressure gradients to be at their strongest in the wake of frontal systems' passage. Another thing I've been noticing is for a tendency for depressions to keep on deepening after occluding: it always used to be written that once occluded, depressions would begin losing strength and filling up, because the main source of energy, borne on mild south-westerlies in the warm sector, has by that stage become de-coupled from the surface source. Then later it was acknowledged that post-occlusion deepening could continue if a strong injection of extra cold air entered the rear quarters of the system - as in an outbreak of maritime arctic northerly winds. More recently it seems to be understood that the main factor maintaining intensification comes if the jet stream has been interrupted, and re-establishes itself with renewed vigour from a north-westerly direction, coming out of Canada initially. Part of this seems to be linked in with the way that the much larger and deeper low pressure systems now crossing the Atlantic are dragging much warmer air into their systems from further south than has usually been the case in the past, and meeting very cold air coming out of the American interior. The greater the temperature differences between these two airmasses, the stronger the overarching jet stream, and hence the deeper and larger the low pressure systems resulting. Ironically, the lower the pressure generated in the centre of these systems, the higher the corresponding pressure in the neighbouring high pressure systems ahead - and so it is that we see these massive broad airflows crossing the Atlantic. Jet stream de-stabilisation and interruption also appears also to be commoner than formerly, so that nowadays, as people will have observed, we are getting this alternation between very strong straight w -> E jet streams, and exaggerated twists and turns in the jet leading to blocked situations, which in turn exaggerate temperature differentials as air is sucked in from far south and far north, re-inforcing the dynamic. Which comes first is still very much a matter of debate; and the possible consequences of polar ice melt are also being factored in.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's been blowing hard almost all day, and our fallen conifer is going nowhere! I'm bracing myself just now for the onset of the cold front/line squall, as it's being reported. Someone's sent in a tweet from Manchester showing what looks like a hurricane in progress: trees thrashing in all directions and a near visibility wipe-out, and lightning has been registered in Kings Lynn and Cambridge.

[BBMmk2]

It's been blowing hard almost all day, and our fallen conifer is going nowhere! I'm bracing myself just now for the onset of the cold front/line squall, as it's being reported. Someone's sent in a tweet from Manchester showing what looks like a hurricane in progress: trees thrashing in all directions and a near visibility wipe-out, and lightning has been registered in Kings Lynn and Cambridge.

Hoping for a better day today. Fairly windy though.