General Chat

In South Wales, we have been downgraded from amber to yellow alert.

Kept checking the trees last night and it was never as windy as it was on, I think, Friday morning - when there were some pretty fierce gusts for a few minutes.

Both Severn Bridges opened again this morning. Couple of flood warnings, but nothing that unusual. Everbody in my road who normally go early have gone.

However, BBC report that a lot of damage in the south west of England, and south coast. 99mph off Needles!!! Someone lost at sea near Newhaven, large tree caught on video landing across a road. So it will be interesting to get eye witness reports from other members.

And Carol on BBC Breakfast weather very dramatic this morning about what could happen this morning in south east England and East Anglia.

I did notice on 10 day forecast for London on WeatherNet this morning that we should have seen the worst of this one by now (or in next hour or so) across Britain and it is headed for Holland and Denmark. But another quite serious storm risk on Saturday 2nd (many Bonfire Night celebrations) and also Wednesday 6th Nov. So worth keeping thread going for another 10 days perhaps. Many helpful tips. :-)

Hardly a breath of wind here near coast N Wales....at the mo.....hope we've missed it??
May have rained a bit in night,but still patches of blue sky this morning.

North Kent - still windy but it's supposed to die down in the next hour. No apparent damage seen from the windows although my (empty) plastic greenhouse has shifted. Luckily I'd tied it to a fence which stopped it taking off.
The Dartford Bridge is closed with all M25 traffic using the twin tunnels, but that's not unusual when it's windy. Dover harbour has also closed with the possibility that 'Operation Stack' will be put in place for freight traffic - they use the M20 as a lorry park!

I was woken up about 5am this morning by strong winds and rain, hopefully the winds will start to ease in the next hour or so.

There are reports of fallen trees causing disruption on roads and rail lines into London, plus many lines on the underground have delays.

There are also flight cancellations and delays at Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, and Stanstead airports - so check with your airline before you head off to catch your flight.

There are reports of about 140,000 homes in Southern & Eastern parts of England who have been left without power, so far no power cuts here in my part of Kent, my lights have flickered a few times this morning, so fingers crossed they won't go out.

Latest from The BBC:-

The storm is forecast to be the worst of the year so far, with wind gusting over 80mph. A gust of 99mph (159km/h) was recorded at Needles Old Battery, Isle of Wight, at 06:00 GMT

Many rail services are cancelled or delayed, with train companies reporting fallen trees on tracks and around 130 flights are cancelled at Heathrow.

UK Power Networks says about 40,000 homes across its patch are without power. The firm covers south-east England, the East of England and London.

Hundreds of trees have been blown down in London, the South and South-East.

Damaging gusts struck overnight and early on Monday along the south coast of England but the strongest winds are now said to be blowing in east London, Kent and Essex.

London Mayor Boris Johnson is to chair an emergency meeting later on Monday morning to discuss how to deal with the damage and disruption caused by the storm.

well all seems fairly quiet here - raining and a bit windy, nothing in the garden seems to have moved

Edit - according to the BBC website, the old Severn Bridge on the A48 is still closed

An hour ago here in my part of Kent it was strong winds and rain, fairly quiet here now, no wind, no rain, and sun is starting to shine through the broken clouds.

Same up here in Valleys, Ann. It does seem to have caught the south coast of England, but anywhere a few miles north has missed it.

I am not working outside in my last working week and pleased about that. But I have worked outside in a lot worse than this over last 10 years. In fact, it is typical Welsh Valleys weather for this time of year. Still quite mild but expected to get much colder this week as we go into November :-0

But no dramas here in North or South Wales last night/this morning. Nor in Northamptonshire (phoned daughter to check).

As the winter months are rapidly approaching I think the suggestion by JohnLovesFletcherofMadeley to keep the thread going is a good idea. but I will rename it to read simply - Latest UK Weather Forecasts or something similar - suggestions welcomed.

sounds good to me - I always like to know what the weather is like in the rest of the UK - we do seem to have a fixation with the weather :-D

My son is a train driver on the high speed trains from Swansea to Paddington - not heard from him as to how things are going

Still wild here near Channel coast, but nothing like it was around 4 a.m. We have plenty of blue sky now with heavy clouds, but dry and sunny.
No power loss for us, but nearby villages on Romney Marsh were cut. Some local roads closed due to fallen trees or debris.
All fences still standing, but daughter has lost a few tiles from her roof a few miles east from here.
We just have a horizontal pyracantha, which was fixed to the house wall.

Milkman still managed his house deliveries before 6.15 a.m.- That can't have been easy.

Gwyn

Lovely blue skies here in Yorkshire - after heavy rain but no wind at all trees as calm as could be ...... Hope it's not the calm before the storm..

Been lovely and sunny all day.My lady gardener turned up this morning .Yesterday she rang me to say that she would probably not be coming ,but as the weather was mild she did a couple of hours and even cut the lawn.
Just fluffy clouds and blue sky as I look out over the sea.

Pleased that most people escaped the storm. It was good to have a warning though so that we could make sure everything was secured, however I am pleased that for us it was a false alarm, better that than being taken unawares.

Yes I think a weather thread is a good idea, it saves lots of separate threads, especially when we get to the dreaded ice and snow.

Weather watch or something similar for title maybe? :-)

Missed us by several hundred miles, I can create more wind than nature managed with a few sprouts and a tin of baked beans....having said that hope all you folk in the south are safe and sound

Very windy here last night/early this morning. Over 40 trees fell on train tracks, other falling trees blocked roads, cars smashed by falling trees, bridges closed, IOW ferry stopped, flooded roads (and still more flooding to come), a few houses damaged/destroyed by falling trees, Electricity cut off, and at least 4 people so far known to have been killed.
Not as bad as 1987 though.

Yellow warning of Rain issued by The Met Office

Issued at: 1054 on Wed 30 Oct 2013

Valid from: 1200 on Fri 1 Nov 2013

Valid to: 0600 on Sat 2 Nov 2013

A spell of heavy rain is expected to affect southern parts of England during Friday and early Saturday. The public should be aware of the possibility of localised flooding and disruption to transport.

Rain is expected to be the main hazard with 15 to 30 mm rain likely quite widely and locally 40 mm.

English Channel coastal areas will also be windy for a time with gales and gusts up to 60 miles an hour, further inland, wind speeds are expected to be much lower.

Just what we don't want on Saturday night - storms when people will be out trying to enjoy fireworks.

According to the Fish, it will be lashing down with precipitation and be quite cold (in single figures). But significantly there is a 52% risk of storms in London area at least. Some risk between 3pm and 6pm, but highest risk between 6pm and midnight. Same level of risk as last weekend.

Our local display is on Sunday fortunately (should be wet and windy, but not likely to have a tree fall on your napper). Ours is in Ynysangharad Park - easy for some to say :-) :-)

An hour ago ( around 3pm) we had the most torrential downpour which lasted for about 5 minutes.

It became so dark outside that and we had to put the lights on..
Now we have... thunder, lightning, heavy rain and hail !:-0 :-0

That signicant storm warning on Saturday night of 52% probability is now 0%.

I think it may be a mistake as I am sure there is a likelihood of storm conditions this weekend. Will keep an eye on developments there. ;-)

I'm sure you'll keep us all posted John, a la Mr. Fish ;-)