Trixology
Weather => General Weather Discussion => Topic started by: toadstone on February 13, 2014, 09:45:35 AM
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The UK, especially the southern counties of England have been experiencing some extreme conditions recently. The Somerset Levels flooding, now along with other areas, the River Seven, Thames etc. Coastal regions in Cornwall, Devon and North Wales have all suffered from wave damage. On the east coast I understand there has also been some land erosion into the sea.
Up until yesterday where I live has escaped some of the more dramatic events. However driving on the way home from work around 4 pm, I noticed the wind had started to pick up speed dramatically. The Met Office had issued a Red Alert earlier in the day. As I neared home (15 mile journey) the wind speed had picked up even more, I passed not one but eight emergency vehicles speeding off in all directions! As I drove down our lane and into the drive I was met by our wheelie bin making its own way into the lane!
Getting inside I made to my way to the weather station/computer ............. 60 mph gusting 80 mph. Once inside I soon acclimatised to the wind noise level, it was around 4.50pm by now and my cats had eyes as big as saucers and Charlie the big male was haring around the house much alarmed at the wind noise. The noise level rose and the weather station readout was very entertaining. At around 5.08pm the constant wind speed was around 80 mph and then it recorded a gust of 93.5 mph. Then the reading became static at 60 odd mph. Realising something was amiss I peered out across the field in the gloom and saw that my anemometer mast was no longer!!!
Hoping to rescue anything that was left I ventured out keeping low along the wall to the mast where I managed to retrieve the whole assembly intact. Peering over the wall and looking down and out across the Cheshire Plain, I could see the lights of Manchester, the airport and right round towards Macclesfield. I could see the blue flashing lights of emergency vehicles making their way to various incidents and more spectacularly the occasional powerline flash as trees were brought down across them.
Sadly although the wind speed definitely increased in the ensuing 15 minutes I was not able to record it. My station is the most exposed around here and without doubt the wind speed must have exceeded 100 mph.
I'll be going out shortly to survey the damage but it isn't any where near as bad as I've seen on the TV this morning in other areas local to us. There's another low due tomorrow apparently along with some snow for us at our level. Happy Days.
Peter.
PS Ignore the banner it's not current.
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Peter:
Wow! Thanks for the weather report. Sorry to hear about your mast. Hopefully the sensor and housing are intact.
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Hi Peter and WeatherCat extreme weather observers,
Wow! Those are indeed extreme conditions! Hope indeed there wasn't too much damage.
Hang in there!
Cheers, Edouard
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When I finally got out and about this morning, the most obvious damage around us was mainly to trees. Structural damage and power lines also suffered. One poor unfortunate man died when he collided with a fallen tree while driving to work this morning. Across the north west there was generally a lot of damage.
On a brighter note my anemometer mast survived in tact. So I spent this afternoon putting it all back up again. Interestingly looking through the WeatherCat graphs I found this one which shows the lead up to the gust, the period it was down and then the time of starting again.
(http://www.biglow.co.uk/weather/media/windspeed1.jpg)
Tonight they are forecasting another new low tramping in from the Atlantic and in our region snow above 250 meters, so at 280 meters we might see some of it [snowflake] [snowflake] [snowflake]
Peter. [snow]
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Good work on reestablishing the mast and anemometer. I used to live in Belfast and know something about the extreme weather conditions that occur in the U.K. Glad you are ok.
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Dear Peter and WeatherCat fans,
When I finally got out and about this morning, the most obvious damage around us was mainly to trees. Structural damage and power lines also suffered. One poor unfortunate man died when he collided with a fallen tree while driving to work this morning. Across the north west there was generally a lot of damage.
On a brighter note my anemometer mast survived in tact. So I spent this afternoon putting it all back up again.
Glad things weren't any worse considering what could have been.
The weather in France appears to have also been fairly nasty. I suppose some of our French WeatherCatters will be reporting on that soon.
cheers, Edouard
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Hi all from wet and windy Wales.
Toadstone is correct it has been horrendous here. From the 1st, January we have had 43 days of rain with a total of 489mm.
The highest wind speed I've recorded here is 51m.p.h. this a.m. Being at 309m a.s.l. the chances of flooding is remote, but elsewhere in Wales its been pretty shocking to see. The town of Aberystwyth a coastal resort and university town the devastation to the promenade has to be seen to be believed. Stone blockwork weighing in the region of 1/2 ton was just thrown about by the waves and large holes were left in the stone walls for several hundred yards. A Victorian shelter on the promenade was broken in two. This all happened in January and there has been two further days of damage this month.
The poor people on the Somerset Levels in S.W.England have endured 5 weeks of flooded houses and farms, and my heart goes out to them, but listening to our pompous, egotistical politicians just makes my blood boil.
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Dear Gwyfyn1 and WeatherCat "victims" of western degenerate political systems,
but listening to our pompous, egotistical politicians just makes my blood boil.
Well, what do ya' know . . . . . . . It seems that politicians on this side of "da' Pond" have also taking a liking to making blusterous speeches concerning extreme weather around here - also chalked full of empty promises (their specialty.)
That leads on an intriguing thought experiment. If we transplant the politicians who are promising an end to the severe droughts in the weather United States with the politicians who are promising an end to the floods in the UK, Ya' think the weather gods would get confused enough to restore our normal weather in both places? [biggrin]
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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Good one! I see we are 'birds of the same feather"