To drive over an hour on the motorway today?

[maryberryslayers]

Myself and DS 1yo, visit a family member a few times a month, I'm supposed to be going today but now I've seen lots of posts about people staying in and being too worried to go out. Now I'm worried I've underestimated the weather and we should be staying put?
I'm in the midlands and I'd have to go on the motorway to get there (40 mins at least) and the rest around small towns.
Should I cancel or just carry on as normal?

I wouldn't as it's not an essential journey.

There are yellow/amber/red warnings in place in parts of the country.

Just go another day.

I would cancel. It's nasty out there

Too windy

I would stay home and travel another day. All the kids footie matches round here have been cancelled today to avoid people having to drive unnecessarily... You know it's serious when that happens

I wouldn't

DH has a 3-4 journey later today for work. I’m guessing he’ll set off even earlier than planned so as to travel in the light.

I’d rather he didn’t but it’s work.

I was due to do a similar journey today and switched plans and did yesterday instead. Wouldn't risk exposed roads today. Can you delay until mid-week or next weekend? Skype?

I wouldn't be worried about taking my car out and about on small roads (30/40mph). But I would be worried about HGVs and other high sided vehicles on open roads / dual carriageway / motorway. I'd also be worried about things getting blown into my path.

If it's none essential then I'd definitely not be doing your journey.

Police in west mids have advised people don’t drive if not essential
I wouldn’t
It’s getting worse over course of the day

We're travelling from London to Somerset today - 3 hour drive. If we don't then we can't get home and dc won't be at school tomorrow or us at work. It's not our ideal situation and we will be taking it slowly.

We have cancelled our visit to people today. No way would we be wanting to struggle in gale force winds for a non essential journey.

There' s an amber warning here, and quite a few minor roads closed with fallen trees already.

I wouldn't go, I would be wary of a the roads I need to be shut and be stuck and bored in my car for hours! Motorways are not immune to the weather, and things flying everywhere bringing everyone to a stand still.

Completely unnecessary.

I'm going to the supermarket😳 It's not too bad down here and it's the only day I have to go.

If you do insist on going, pack food, drink and blankets...
or just stay home and make a phone call for now

We were due to visit relatives an hour away today, but have postponed. There are so many trees down here (S/W Yorks) that I doubt we’d get far anyway, certainly don’t want to be in the way of a tree when it does comes down!! The motorway we’d go on has been closed to high sided vehicles. We don’t hace a high sided vehicle, but it just shows how windy it is. DH and I both work outside and are usually pretty gung-ho about the weather, but today we are enjoying the Great Indoors !

I'd go, but driving in wind doesn't bother me at all.

I’d go, if you want to, the roads will be quiet.if you don’t want to you’ve got a great excuse.
The supermarket was lovely and quiet this morning.

Apart from the wind, some areas will have flooding today - probably not the motorways but we wouldn't have been able to get to the nearest junction from here this morning.

This makes me laugh. It’s a bit windy. 20 years ago it wouldn’t have even been worthy of mention and now they are closing roads and telling people not to out.

We get storms like this several times every single year. The only thing about this one is that it is hitting the whole UK at once so is a bit more news worthy than if it was just Scotland, or just the SW

Been watching tales of disaster because of the weather all morning, even had the usual videos of journalists by the sea getting blown about, but when you actually venture out in the car it's fine and hundreds of people are out and about. It's just dramatisation. We've had worse storms than this.

I guess that depends exactly where you are in the country.

BBC latest:
Storm Ciara: Floods and travel disruption as UK hit by severe gales www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51425482

@Heymacarana it's not just 'a bit windy' here in west Yorkshire, power is down until at least 10pm, houses are flooding and most of the roads are closed around us - they're either littered with bins, tree branches or debris, or have become actual rivers.

Yeah I know. It happens all over the county several times a year.

This post comes to you from my house on top of a cliff on a west facing coast. It’s windy, but 80mph gusts are hardly a unique event are they?

Sure, we get a lot of weather on this island.

And if there are travel advisories, followed by news about disruption, floods etc, then it's a good idea to think about what may be on your route before making unnecessary journeys. Can't see what's amusing about that concept.

@Heymacarana I can see it's clearly just my perception then

Will tell those around me who are losing everything they own to flood water to suck it up then as it's hardly a unique circumstance. That should do it.