It seems that our weather really is changing. The Met Office are now actually naming storms that affect the UK and Ireland in much the same way as hurricanes are named elsewhere in the world. We have always had gale force winds in November but this year they already seem to be stronger than in previous years with trees felled, torrential downpours of rain and widespread flooding. The Met Office have been very helpful and their website includes weather forecasts, videos, severe weather warnings and even infographics to use on your website or blog.
Storm Barney is the second storm to hit this week and it’s still raging. Travelling south on the motorway from Cumbria to Lancashire tonight was hazardous with high sided vehicles being blown around and a 20 mph speed limit. Thankfully now we are all safely tucked up inside a lovely warm home built of bricks and we can hear the wind whipping around outside. After it has all blown over I don’t think there will be many leaves left on our trees.
Here’s a snippet from the Met Office website which explains a bit:
Why are we naming storms?
In a pilot project with Met Eirann, from October 2015 the Met Office announced that wind storms with the potential to affect the UK and/or Ireland will be named to help raise awareness of severe weather and ensure greater safety of the public.
Storm Abigail was the first named storm on 12 November 2015, and Storm Barney became the second as it was named on 16 November 2015.
Find out more on our Name our storms pages.
Hopefully the storm will soon pass and we will carry on as normal.
Luckily I have already taken lots of pictures of the gorgeous autumn colours so when it’s dreary and grey I will be able to remind myself what our gardens and countryside looked like for a few brief weeks this autumn.
There are severe weather warnings for much of the UK for the next couple of days.
Here’s the advice from the experts about what to expect and what you can do.
Source: metoffice.gov.uk
The Met Office also publishes infographics for flooding and other severe situations. You can find the code to display the info on your blog on their website, just copy and paste it on your text page.
Wishing you all a very happy, dry and warm evening! Gillian 🙂
And we have a storm front coming our way too tomorrow… Hope you don’t get any storm damage Gillian. We have battened down the hatches already!
Same to you Cathy. Keep Safe!
Because we have hurricanes, we’ve had named storms all my life, but this must be a pretty serious thing for the UK to start naming storms. Do you think they are getting worse? They warn us that climate change will bring more extreme weather and we’ve been seeing that the past decade. Rather unsettling!
Yes I do think the weather is worsening. It seems that everyone is taking this years storms so much more seriously. We always have November gales but not like this going on for days. Today I drove through flooded roads and in a nearby seaside town seafoam was blowing down the high street like tumble weed!
Wow, definitely unsettling!
I think the storms are worse and more regular. I lost my clay pot containing a baytree in the wind and a tree was down over the canal bridge closing the road for most of the day. Yuck. I hate the wind.
It’s a shock to have such violent weather after a long mild spell isn’t it?