Storm A Brewing Down South

So basically it turned out to be exactly as they predicted, winds of 70/80mph, damage to buildings, power failures, and a large amount of trees and debris on railway lines.

Not bad when you consider that the storm didn’t even exist when they first warned us that it was coming and the likely consequences.

Well done the Met Office.

And also well done to the BBC, ITN, Sky News, and all the other news providers, for covering the story and guaranteeing that most people were aware and prepared for the disruptions.

+1 ernie.

Surely if it’s been blown out of all proportion by anybody it’s the people on social media getting het up. Can’t say I’ve noticed much in the way of unwarranted sensationalism in the media – how were they supposed to report it?

Also it’s surely far better to get it wrong by reporting a storm which doesn’t happen (not that this is the case here, despite those of us far enough North not to see anything taking the piss) than not reporting one which does.

+1 Ernie – spot on.

Anyone know how Swinley and Bedgebury have faired in all this as looking to ride either of them this Thursday but don’t want to drive for an hour to find the majority of trails are closed 😕

north midlands here, no wind. Me n mar mate went out last night to ‘experience’ the winds on 2 wheels expecting (hoping) to be like lieutenant Dan on top of forrest gumps boat in the storm. We went out over the cheshire plains for 26 miles. No rain, little wind and moderate temps, bahhhh!

fukushima me!

ITV News ? @itvnews
Storm causes two reactors to shut down at Dungeness nuclear power plant in Kent http://itv.co/167ZUdJ
11:08 AM – 28 Oct 2013

Added bonus – 90 mins of damaged tree cutting done, all without any power tools so forearm pumped – surprisingly good exercise and brownie points from ‘er indoors. All the wood logged up and ready to dry out for fire logs, lots of new kindling stacked up. Last of the out-of-reach apples now easy to pick up of the floor. Not a bad morning all in all.

Better catch up on the work now.

Can’t say I’ve noticed much in the way of unwarranted sensationalism in the media – how were they supposed to report it?

Did you see the BBC Breakfast news this morning? Given the fact that it’s now produced in Salford, it was virtually saturation (no pun intended) coverage of the Armageddon and devastation that was occurring South of a line from Lowestoft to Fishguard.

No mention of the fact that from the North Midlands Northwards it was just a bit breezy and it was raining a bit.

I know that the media and particularly the BBC have a duty to keep the general populace informed but the way that it was done was sensationalist to the verge of panic-mongerming.

I never thought I’d have to type this, but I agree with Ernie.

I know that the media and particularly the BBC have a duty to keep the general populace informed but the way that it was done was sensationalist to the verge of panic-mongerming.

One of us must have been watching the alternate reality BBC news programme, as I watched it this morning and didn’t see any of this “verge of panic-mongering” you speak of.

Last of the out-of-reach apples now easy to pick up of the floor…

… three doors down.

No mention of the fact that from the North Midlands Northwards it was just a bit breezy and it was raining a bit.

So the weather was entirely normal in the North and you want them to report that on the news? Er..?

MoreCashThanDash – Member
I never thought I’d have to type this, but I agree with Ernie.

It’s really annoying, isn’t it? 😉

I think it’s just an uncharacteristically considered point made by Ernie rather than the rest of us losing the plot.

So the weather was entirely normal in the North and you want them to report that on the news? Er..?

My thoughts exactly! What a strange post.

I think I prefer brakes description.

And it’s worth remembering that the ’87 storm was also very South focussed. My now wife and her family were cut off and without power for 5 days, in Peterborough I knew nothing about it at the time.

Then I got my first proper job two weeks later in an insurance claims dept. Soon remembered the date 16/10/87!

Thanks brakes, that puts things much more in perspective 🙂

An interesting article here :

Met Office supercomputer mapped storm long before it had formed

“The Met Office supercomputer was able to map this series of events days before it happened using data from millions of sources across the globe such as weather stations, satellites, aeroplanes, boats, buoys and argo floats, which lie below the surface of the ocean and beam back information on the water temperature, which affects global weather systems”

I agree with ernie. The met office talked about this late last week before the storm even formed. There is so much at stake that the ability to predict the weather using modern technology should be used to best advantage. Some people may have died, but I am sure some lives were probably saved due to such advanced warnings.
I am at the opposite end of the country, where we got off lightly. Hope those affected have not seen too much damage.

“The Met Office supercomputer was able to map this series of events days before it happened using data from millions of sources across the globe such as weather stations, satellites, aeroplanes, boats, buoys and argo floats, which lie below the surface of the ocean and beam back information on the water temperature, which affects global weather systems”

but they said it would rain at 3pm yesterday and it didnt rain until 3.35pm. The met office is rubbish.

Anyone waiting for a tentative link to global warming in the news? Just wait till it snows again!

fatladridesbikes – Member

pictonroad – Member
My office is closed, roof has been damaged. I’ll expect the 10;30 update to report a slight bit of felt lifting…

Oh the irony as I believe you work for the environment agency if you are the pictonroad I know ?!

hmmmm, a fan. I do… and you are?

Office is open again, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, the lifts are out of order.

Commence panic.

Typical, A bit of wind and rain and the South grinds to a halt and the privatised utilities and transport companies cant cope.

Typical, northern response

molgrips – Member

So the weather was entirely normal in the North and you want them to report that on the news? Er..?

not exactly, but the bbc website does have a few ott headlines:

“Storm batters Britain”

“UK hit by travel disruption”

when what they mean is:

‘Strong gusts of wind in parts of the south-east’

If I fall off my bike and break a collarbone I consider myself injured, even though the rest of me is fine.

To be honest it seems to me to be splitting hairs to a ridiculous extent to moan that the headlines don’t explicitly state which areas of Britain have suffered damage. Why do you even care?

I’ve just been back out in it.. dear God it was…. errrm normal for a Monday.
Canary Wharf is desolate with only the odd tourist and security guard roaming, it’s like the world turned it’s back on living and hunkered down for a Def Leopard Anthem from the late 80’s.

Then of course there are some folks who just take advantage and stay at home as a freebeee..

But don’t worry all, some of us are here hacking away..

Luv N Hugs
😆

molgrips – Member
Why do you even care?

personally, i do enjoy a good ‘Weather-Pocalypse!’ forecast-story.

chuck in an opportunity to have a moan about ‘more bloody london-centric news’ and i’m have an entertaining media-monday.

Sod the weather making news, that met office computer takes 1.2MegaWatt of power to run! **** a dook!

Are the BBC singlehandedly keeping Berghaus going? Whenever there is a bit of rain, it’s over to some poor sod in his Berghaus top to tell Huw about the latest, “extraordinary events.”

24 hr news – you have to love it!!M

We need to get onto a few websites for offshore weather bouys, never mind the “forecasts” that way you can see what’s coming

some misunderstanding here of the kind of weather system that went across England last night..as pointed out elsewhere – it didnt actually exist until 2 days ago, and up until about 10pm last night it was fairly innocuous out in the southwest approaches. It only really developed into a fierce storm very late on Sunday night just as it rolled into Bristol Channel area as the top of the storm at high altitude connected with a region of the jetstream that forced a huge amount of development into the system (jargon – explosive cyclogenesis). Within 1-2 hours very high winds at high jetstream level were forced down to near the surface (sting jet) that happened across the home counties as the storm rolled out over towards the wash.

Not in a million years could you have predicted that explosive cyclogenisis or sting jet release from looking at observations from ocean buoys…

but the met office did predict it – 5 days ago.

Ok so the amber area in their warnings covered a wider swathe of the country than the damage took place over, but a small difference in the track of the low, or an hour or two difference in the timing of the onset of explosive cyclogenesis would have meant the sting jet hit Cardiff/Brizzle or Brum rather than the blessed south east

All in all a very good call…done by a bunch of sandalwearing scientists with equations.

Hats off to them…what they have just pulled off was the realms of Science Fiction 10 years ago

careful, it sounds like you actually know what you’re talking about.

I really don’t believe that the Met Office computer is housed in halls bigger than the size of 2 football pitches and takes 1.2MW of power.

Nicely said gwaelod

careful, it sounds like you actually know what you’re talking about.

We can’t have that sort of thing here! 😀

I really don’t believe that the Met Office computer is housed in halls bigger than the size of 2 football pitches and takes 1.2MW of power.

I do, I’ve seen it.

pictonroad – Member
fatladridesbikes – Member
pictonroad – Member
My office is closed, roof has been damaged. I’ll expect the 10;30 update to report a slight bit of felt lifting…

Oh the irony as I believe you work for the environment agency if you are the pictonroad I know ?!

hmmmm, a fan. I do… and you are?

BigSi. Just lost my old password so had to re-register 🙄

I really don’t believe that the Met Office computer is housed in halls bigger than the size of 2 football pitches and takes 1.2MW of power.

The halls have to be big, so there’s space to put a new one in and get it up to speed before decommisioning the old one – there has to be the infrastructure to support parallel running.

OK, so its actually less than half what they’ve quoted then for the majority of the time.

No the halls themselves are big and fixed in size, and they can’t be made smaller, but there’s a lot of free space, (to put the next one in ) but as well as the main computer there’s stuff like archives and servers in there too though…and lots of free space around about.

why the hall size fixation?

from memory I’d say they are bigger than soccer pitches…with more elaborate access and firefighting protocols

Safe journey home folks 😉