North Atlantic WeatherCatters - how did you weather 'Desmond' ?

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat sufferers from extreme weather, . . . . . 

There has been a lot of news lately about this storm that the UK Met Office has named 'Desmond.'  It seems to have really battered Ireland, northern England and southern Scotland.  Has anyone in the WeatherCat community been effected by this storm?

Edouard

P.S. Does anybody know how the UK Met Office decides a storm is worthy of a name?

[xairbusdriver]

I thought that was what got maxen into <repairing his anemometer>. Maybe that was another storm! Either way, I'm sure everyone over there is ready for some boring Winter weather!

[Bull Winkus]

affect ? verb ? to influence (also with ?ed,-ing,-s)

effect ? noun ? result or consequence

          ? verb ? to bring about (also with ?ed, -ing, -s)

effective ? always e in business writing.


 

[SeanA]

Hi Edouard,

Apparently - ?A storm will then be named when it is deemed to have the potential to cause substantial impacts in the UK and/or Ireland? ??

http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/12/06/wind-and-rain-records-for-storm-desmond/

Think Cumbria NW England got the worst, according to the news.


Cheers
Sean.

[jace]

Hi Edouard

Sean is correct Southern Scotland and NW England, Cumbria in particular got very badly hit, one town Honister in Cumbria saw a record breaking 341mm ( about 13.5 inch) of rain in 24 hours at the weekend  , in comparison where I am in the East of England I have a monthly total including today of 4 mm ( about 0.16 inch). 

Giving a storm a name is a new idea for this year, I guess the Met Office felt left out as everybody else in the World names Hurricanes, Typhoons, tropical storms etc, to better raise awareness of severe weather. The names were suggested by members of the public.

The list for this winter is: Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, Desmond, Eva, Frank, Gertrude, Henry, Imogen, Jake, Katie, Lawrence, Mary, Nigel, Orla, Phil, Rhonda, Steve, Tegan, Vernon and Wendy.

Wonder if Desmond is going to be renamed Disastrous Desmond ?

JC

[xairbusdriver]

Perhaps these are actually powerful remnants of storms hatched in the Caribbean, Middle Atlantic? Those get named if they become strong enough. Typical of too many selfish "yankees", I tend to forget about these storms, even the named ones, once they no longer pose a threat to ME or my country.

Is there such a thing as an Atlantic El Ni?o/a?

[Steve]

The list for this winter is: Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, Desmond, Eva, Frank, Gertrude, Henry, Imogen, Jake, Katie, Lawrence, Mary, Nigel, Orla, Phil, Rhonda, Steve, Tegan, Vernon and Wendy.

Wow, I have the dubious honor of potentially having a storm named after me.

In the US, NOAA has been naming tropical storms and hurricanes since 1953 (coincidentally when I arrived.)

...the use of short, easily remembered names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time.

A few years ago, the over-dramatized US television network The Weather Channel got the bright idea to name winter storms, but their criteria was vastly swayed toward naming storms in heavy viewing area. For instance, a mild snowstorm that hit New York City would get a name, but one that killed people in Iowa would not, because there aren't many TWC viewers there. The entire weather community roundly derided, criticized, and ignored TWC's new convention. The National Weather Service went so far as to put out a bulletin that their forecasters were NOT to use the names. TWC still names them, but I rarely hear a person on the street use that name. It is only for their own marketing advantage.

Steve (not the storm)

[elagache]

Dear JC, X-Air, Sean, Herb, Steve, and WeatherCat experts of "Shakespeare" . . . . 

Sean is correct Southern Scotland and NW England, Cumbria in particular got very badly hit, one town Honister in Cumbria saw a record breaking 341mm ( about 13.5 inch) of rain in 24 hours at the weekend  , in comparison where I am in the East of England I have a monthly total including today of 4 mm ( about 0.16 inch). 

Well, I"m glad JC that you're not suffering from the storm, but that almost sounds like a drought!

Giving a storm a name is a new idea for this year, I guess the Met Office felt left out as everybody else in the World names Hurricanes, Typhoons, tropical storms etc, to better raise awareness of severe weather. The names were suggested by members of the public.

The list for this winter is: Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, Desmond, Eva, Frank, Gertrude, Henry, Imogen, Jake, Katie, Lawrence, Mary, Nigel, Orla, Phil, Rhonda, Steve, Tegan, Vernon and Wendy.

So what happens if there are more than 21 storms?  After all, with climate change!

Wonder if Desmond is going to be renamed Disastrous Desmond ?

  . . . Never mind that, what do you think Eva is going to do?  Eva is surely the name of vengeful woman and certainly she'll have to top Desmond - with equality and all that rot . . . .   

Wow, I have the dubious honor of potentially having a storm named after me.

 . . . Don't let it bother ya' man. . . . . . After all, I've had not 1 but 2 hurricanes named after me!! 

http://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=1373.msg11652#msg11652

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat residences of the United Kingdom,

Wonder if Desmond is going to be renamed Disastrous Desmond ?

  . . . Never mind that, what do you think Eva is going to do?  Eva is surely the name of vengeful woman and certainly she'll have to top Desmond - with equality and all that rot . . . .   

Well, it was a joke, but it seems that Eva has been a vengeful storm after all:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/25/christmas-day-flood-warnings-prompt-meeting-of-emergency-cobra-committee

Any WeatherCatters in harm's way of Eva?

Edouard

[maxen]

I thought that was what got maxen into <repairing his anemometer>. Maybe that was another storm! Either way, I'm sure everyone over there is ready for some boring Winter weather!

Nope. It wasn't me.
"My" storm was called 'Gorm' on the 30th of November.

I would believe that 'Eva' changed gender when arriving to Norway/Sweden and were then called 'Staffan' instead. It hit about middle of Sweden, which made it easy on the southern part, were I live. Also the mountains around the border No/Sw made the wind decrease somewhat.
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/regionalt/jamtland/harda-vindar-nar-staffan-slog-till-i-i-tanndalen

http://www.smhi.se/nyhetsarkiv/stormen-staffan-har-passerat-1.98561

...

About naming here, at least the Nordic coutries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) has equalized the naming of storms. They realized this in 2013 when three storms were rolling in over Denmark/south Sweden at the same time: 'St Jude', 'Christian' and 'Simone'. In media this were utterly confusing since it was only one storm in question, just different names. They therefore managed to agree that one name is enough.
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=sv&sl=da&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dmi.dk%2Fnyheder%2Farkiv%2Fnyheder-2015%2F12%2Fderfor-har-danske-storme-navne%2F

[xairbusdriver]

They ... managed to agree that one name is enough.

How about "The" storm? Or, depending on the direction of travel, The Norway Storm, or The (probably rare) Finland Storm, etc. In other words, "Take ownership" of your countries storms! Of course, you could also "blame" England, Scotland, Iceland, Poland...

[maxen]

They ... managed to agree that one name is enough.

How about "The" storm? Or, depending on the direction of travel, The Norway Storm, or The (probably rare) Finland Storm, etc. In other words, "Take ownership" of your countries storms! Of course, you could also "blame" England, Scotland, Iceland, Poland...

Nonono. That is not the way. Things here should be discussed in media and everywhere. Storms should be able to refer to historically. But if this "storm-rate" continues I think "the storm" seems easy to remember.

Interestingly, if you meet a random Swedish guy, you almost always end up discussing the weather. In the lunch-room at work someone always says "nice weather" or "what a bad weather" or something, just to start a conversation. I experienced the complete opposite when I visited the Faroe Islands. A place were its always raining, blowing, fogging and about 5degC. I tried saying something about the weather to a local but they just looked at me wondering what planet I came from.

..
Looked at TV here were they showed some footage from Britain. Not a pretty sight. Hope you guys are all right and the flooding goes away soon.

[elagache]

Dear Robert, X-Air, and WeatherCat property managers,

  . . . . Under the circumstances, it seems to me that perhaps these "named storms" should be named more appropriately . . . . with names like "fake hype," and "bogus ballyhoo." . . . . 

Seriously, the idea of assigning human names to storms is really a mistake and clearly intended to hype up storms that aren't hurricanes.  The story behind naming hurricanes is sad enough as it is.  Here is a quick summary:

http://www.hurricanescience.org/science/forecast/forecasting/hurricanenaming/

To quote: "Originally, these names conformed to conventional military code (Alpha, Bravo, etc.), but as transportation traffic increased and meteorological observations improved, the practice of systematically naming tropical storms and was initiated to assist in their identification."

Honestly, do we need anything more than storm-A, storm-B, etc?  It isn't like giving a storm a name means we can call out to it and get it to change direction or anything!   

Cheers, Edouard

[WCDev]

Flooding has been pretty bad in Northern England/Yorkshire - if you can get it, the BBC has live updates at the moment at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-35182274