AIBU to be surprised that all of London's Royal Parks are closed today because of the wind?

I think it's pretty silly. We are so risk averse now and it's a lovely sunny autumn day. I would have hoped the royal Parks do tree audits and remove trees that are a risk of falling.

Presumably they are managed by a different group of people, who made a different decision?

Or less diligent in monitoring the actual condition of their trees in the first place and so don’t know what the risk is ;)

Falling trees do kill people in storms. The park is a leisure facility and doesn't need to be open. It makes sense to close it.

I think I was blasé about storms until an episode of Ambulance a few years ago about Storm Doris - you can probably find it online. I think they went out to a young man who very narrowly escaped an extremely nasty car accident with a falling tree, and a woman who had been on her lunch break in town from her retail job and been hit by a falling sign and instantly killed. That stuck with me and has made me more cautious about being out and about in windy weather. The ambulance staff were upset about people being casual about "a bit of wind" when they had seen such tragedy. It was very well edited.

Few yrs ago, I was at a NatTrust property on windy day (with hailstorms). There were loud cracks as large branches came down. Me & teen DS were talking about whether you'd have any time to flee if you heard the crack, before the branch hit you. Walking thru a local park last night I took similar risks, was very windy, under mature trees.

I understand the parks for closing during high wind conditions.

I'm surpised that you are surprised @Westfacing !

We’ve also had a very warm summer. There’s some
evidence that trees in the uk are increasingly “dropping” branches after heat stress thanks to climate change, and the mechanism they do this by, is cutting off water supply to limbs which weakens them and they fall. There may be quite a lot of branches that have been weakened but not fallen, that will go in the high winds.

Because clearly they are more worried about being sued and peoples safety than others

YABU I live near a royal park and you can see the real damage after storms like these, it's a sensible thing to do.

Forgot to say this is in Dublin 8!

Half a large tree fell beside a house in our estate! Literally missed the house itself by inches. No one injured thankfully and the lady who owns the house wasn’t at home so her car wasn’t damaged. Her garden wall is in bits though.

So why are you moaning? Go to them and get hit by a falling tree.

A lot of trees down around us. Very sensible. The other parks should follow suit.

They are more diligent about their responsibilities to the public and the scope of their insurance policy!

So go to the other parks and stop moaning on

There was also a young woman killed by a falling tree in Manchester last month. In the country park near me a massive rotten bough fell across a path on a non-windy day last week and would have killed someone.

As trees get old they can be more prone to disease, or weak roots, and it doesn’t take much for them to get blown over. Parks being closed is for good reason.

There was a death at Kew Gardens after heavy storms: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/16/woman-killed-falling-branch-kew-gardens-coroners-court-accidental-death

It's a sensible decision made on the basis of fatalities.

Until the last couple of years, I did some conservation work and would go around dealing with smaller branches of trees that overhung footpaths towards the end of summer. Once you've felt how the branch of a perfectly healthy looking, strong Oak tree can just break off and crash to the ground with just the slightest pressure, not even a cut, from a polesaw touching the point where the tension from the bark is at its highest, it becomes very clear why strong winds after a dry summer when trees can shed make it a significant risk.

Lots of branches are down in Dublin this morning

Someone died due to the weather caused by Storm Amy in Ireland yesterday. DH was delayed over 2 hours, and DD over 5 hours, getting home from Amsterdam (different flights due to plans changing). And it was quite wild here in Brussels on the outer edges last night, so they had closed the park near me as well (and probably the others but I wasn’t going out to check).

I suspect it's in response to this tragedy that recently happened, where a little girl was killed: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k77m8r8n2o

Yep, you beat me to it but I was just going to post that there are gusts of up to 50 mph forecast for Heathow and London City pretty much from now right through to early evening.

They will be protecting themselves from the possibility of trees or branches falling and causing accidents alongside a genuine desire to keep people safe.

There are lots of very big, very old trees in the royal parks. The public can't be trusted to follow advice and stay away from them, so the parks management are being sensible. It's a shame but it is one day, and this way no will die or get injured and blame someone else.