Handhold please-Storm Isha

[Ishaloadacrap]

For anybody else who is literally in the eye of the storm. Am in Northern Ireland and it’s horrendous. I am normally a very calm, rational person but the sheer force of this storm is making me sick with anxiety. Power is out, our road is blocked by fallen trees and my friends roof has been partially ripped off her house.

I'm in West Yorkshire. Kept getting woken up because of the wind and the bathroom window blew right open. Just checked and the fence I repaired after the last storm is still standing. But I don't think it's the worst winds we've had here at least. Hope everyone is in one piece.

Different, but same terror.
My uncle had a sailboat.
He invited our family out with his family onto a lake (he was supposed to be a master sailor) for the afternoon.
It was stormy and we were caught and that jackass didn’t have the foggiest what to do. We were tossed and turned upon the waves and I was a little girl helpless, terrified.
I remember thinking how absurd my farmer father looked in his white sneakers - he always wore boots. A silly thing to remember.
Finally uncle blew a distress horn and a man from shore in a motor boat came to save us. We barely made it to shore. We had absolutely no business going out in a storm, but that was uncle’s common sense.
I always thought of uncle as a blowhard after that. And uncle always was.

I feel for you @Ishaloadacrap and I love your username!
I absolutely hate it when it's windy! Yesterday, I gave the kids (they're late teens/twenties) a torch each and left candles and battery LED candles out. They thought I was mad but we'd already had a brief power cut the day before.
I'm south east England near the coast and winds of up to 80mph are/were expected! 😬
It's calmed down a little bit now but supposed to be pretty bad tomorrow again. Hate it!

I'm normally fine with any weather but in one of the last high wind ones our roof came off (and is still on a temporary fix while we wait for the roofer). We didn't have it anywhere near as bad as you last night and still every big gust made my nerves jangle. Could have cried by the time I eventually managed to fall asleep.

Hope all is OK this morning x

These were the highest gusts recorded up to 8pm ish last night, some areas along West coast having sustained wind of 80-90 kmph,

Morning everyone, what a night! Also in NI, that definitely felt like the worst storm for a while. It felt like the windows were going to blow in!

Hi @Ishaloadacrap . I get you’re scared and really hope things have calmed down now, but please don’t take down mature trees as a knee jerk reaction. Maintain them well and it’s unlikely they fall whilst healthy, but they are very important for the environment and you will be exacerbating the causes of these increasing storms (climate change).

Hope everyone got through the storm unscathed. I'm in the SE and it wasn't too bad here, which surprised me as I'm at the top of a hill and in quite an exposed position. The people who put their bins out last night for this morning's collection will soon be retrieving them from wherever they ended up though!

There are no trains between London and Gatwick this morning, so there must be a lot of trees down.

All trains in Scotland have been off since 7pm last night and are not due to resume until later this morning, after rush hour at least. Will wait for a lull here and go out to see if any damage and tidy up the garden. Garden furniture is always tied up with tarpaulin and weighed down by bricks for the winter. The whole caboodle has moved several feet. Hope everyone is ok, it has been a long night.

I agree. Please don’t cut the tree down. If it is a healthy tree, it is unlikely to come down. Have a tree surgeon assess it and get some damaged branches removed if there are any as those may snap off in the next storm.

The more trees we remove the more the wind can freely batter our houses.
And that’s before we get into the environmental impact of removing healthy trees.

We live backing on to a canal and have a row of very tall, old trees behind the garden on the canal bank, so I completely understand your fear. But we will not be asking for the trees to be chopped down (canal society would refuse in any case) and I ask you to reconsider about yours 🌳

Strongest wind recorded in Northumberland close to me according to the Met Office.

Honestly terrified last night.

Well - THAT was a long night. Both (ASD) teens twitchy. Dog very unhappy too.
Scotland here & I'm surprised my roof is still on (it's old & creaky at best)
I remember the storm of 87 in the SE - when I woke up (due to plaster dust falling in my mouth) I could see the sky through the hole in the attic room roof.
I went downstairs & there were Army volunteers outside clearing a massive tree which had hit the traffic lights at the junction of the main road outside my door.

Hope everyone is okay & this is the worst of it passed now x

NI here too, that was a wild night!

The big spider in my living room came out from where it usually hides and wandered all round the place so even the little creatures were scared last night.

We were rather freaked out by 70mph winds here, can’t imagine what it would have been like by you OP. Hope you made it through the night ok and things start dying out across today (no sign of let up here yet!). Hoping the power is sorted asap too

Hi @MILLYmo0se . Where is that map from please? Ta

Good luck for the clean up folks. Not sure how long it’s going to be until the power is restored. We have lost a fence and the greenhouse, gutters at the back of the house and I have acquired a plastic storage locker thing and a huge green net that has wrapped itself around the car!
I hope everybody gets sorted and gets some rest. The community centre has a generator so they’re opening up later this morning for hot drinks and soup 😊

Much calmer now in Belfast, but quite a lot of small branches down on the roads. Only saw one tree down on the school run, and not much other sign of the storm, so hopefully it hasn't caused too much damage here.

I remember in Storm Doris my neighbour struggling to my door in incredibly violent winds to tell me that one of my (empty) wheelie bins had blown behind her (metal) car and could I secure it immediately before her (metal) car was dented. The same storm brought a massive MDF chest of drawers from someone's garden down on my car but no, my place was out in the open protecting her car from an empty plastic bin...

@CarterBeatsTheDevil
I can see her point. She would have to claim on her own insurance for her METAL car, because you were irresponsible with your bins! You want her to potentially loose full no claims because you couldn't be arsed to take sensible precautions?🙄
She should have dragged it back up wind of your car. That might have prompted you to do something.

@lola8345 It sounds like you're surrounded by inconsiderate neighbours and this has struck a bit of a nerve. I had done what I could to secure the bins (had wedged them behind my own car) but as I say, there was heavy furniture being lifted up and blown over walls. I didn't think it was sensible of her to risk going out herself and I also didn't think it was reasonable to expect me to go out. I'd happily have paid for any repairs to her car as a result of my bins going walkabout!

We lost over a million healthy trees in a single forest here in Northumberland during Arwen.

I dread to think how many more now.

Also in Northern Ireland OP. Did you see that absolute mess of scaffolding in Castle Lane in Belfast yesterday - very surprised no-one was badly hurt or killed by that falling.

The very top of mainland Scotland here - very exposed, used to storms, BUT that was crazy! Red alert from midnight. The floors were actually shaking. As an aside and it sounds madness, but I have discovered the most wonderful ear-plugs which drown out noise. It was my vibrating floor which woke me up when it hit at 3.30 this morning, not the noise.
It keeps you calm when you're not hearing the awful noise.
House and garden relatively unscathed which is always a miracle to wake up to. Glad it is over, but for a lot of people, the carnage will take a while to sort.
Another storm is coming apparently. Oh goody!

Yes that was a miracle there were no serious casualties!

Poor old Scotland seems to be getting a proper battering this winter, especially the East coast