Worst coastal surge for 30 years?

[OhYouMerryLittleKitten]

So r4 reports the environment agency as saying for this afternoon right down the east coast to Essex. Just eating my breakfast so will dig out the relevant info in a little bit.

That is dreadful.

Dh is currently staying in Great Dartmouth with work, his hotel is in the Amber alert area, but was evacuated 5yrs ago due to flooding. They've sent home all the staff as bridges might flood & are talking about hotels putting people up who've had to leave their homes. Know of two people sho had trees come down on them today, one in a car & one in a bus :( thankfully all ok, just very shaken.

Stay safe everyone

Just had high tide on the Firth of Forth. Have never seen the water so high.....over the top of the local harbour wall. Choppy water, but not big waves, just a massive high tide.

Thanks Rooners have just phoned him, he is staying with his partner so that's good! I'm on the hampton end of HB, just seems VERY windy at the moment. Just opened my back door to stick some food out for the chickens and was blown in the face with plenty of wind/rain!

My aunt is near the coast and environment agency have just phoned to say red alert, shes cacking her pants bless her

Maybe we should all head for Dunsop Bridge, Lancashire.

Apparently this may be the most central place in Britain.

Though Meriden has long held the reputation as being the town furthest from any coast.

I lived on the north Kent coast during the last one and my six yr old was a tiny baby
It was amazing to watch but we were lucky as it wasn't as bad as this
The general public acted like complete and utter twits though, climbing on concrete walking trying to take photos Tec
People really do not get how dangerous the sea is

I hope you will all be okay. Personally borscht I would have booked Canterbury Travelodge or the premier in Berne bay, top of hill and vacated for the night x

Sorry about the auto corrections!

Maybe we should all head for Dunsop Bridge, Lancashire

I don't live too far from there - but instead of heading for the hills, we went for a walk by the Ribble in Preston at high tide. We've never seen it so high before - various of the paths flooded but secondary embankments holding up fine- allotments and a sports field flooded but we've commented in the past that they seemed designed as sacrificial overflow.

A mink scuttled across the path in front of us, presumably washed out of its hole lower down.

I see you linked to Jaywick being advise to evacuate - that was one of the places which suffered badly (fatalities) in floods in the past. It's very low-lying, and a lot of the houses are bungalows so its particularly vulnerable.

Hi Downstairs...hopefully you're high up enough, I think most of that end is isn't it? Quite a sharp fall to the sea from the houses.

I was a wuss and sent ds1 to feed the chooks

He gets paid

win win

as long as they don't actually blow away that is!

DD's school is closed as it's a 'rest' centre - no idea if it's open tomorrow

Popped into check really quickly, 18,000 homes evacuated in Lincoln.
Its looking really serious I'm afraid.

back later.

In answer to the "anti surge" questions, tidal models don't include meteorological effects (I think you've established that). Pressure distributions affect sea level directly via the "inverse barometer" effect, where low pressure "sucks" up the sea surface, and high pressure pushes it down. Additionally, there's the indirect mechanism of wind effects. Winds blow anti clockwise (northern hemisphere) round a low pressure. If they blow across open sea towards a coast, they will tend to pile up water along the coast. These two effects do not always coincide. If you look at the met office pressure chart for 12:00, it actually looks like thesurface winds caused low over the North Sea should have been clearing water away from the east coast... Hence your anti surge.

Pressure charts: www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/surface-pressure/#?tab=surfacePressureBW&fcTime=1386201600

And an interesting take on today's events from the sea level experts in liverpool: noc.ac.uk/news/storm-surge-hit-uk-coastline

Train home today was delayed by 39 minutes and had to go really slow. This was from Nottingham to Newark and it was awful in Nottingham but Newark, as ever, didn't get the memo about the weather and it's just dry and cold and grim. Absolutely bizarre.

Thank you brow sauce :)

Yes, that's interesting. Sounds like Holland should have got extra water!

Rooners and downstairs, im just along the coast from you guys - severe flood warning in place for seasalter, but we seem to be ok. I went to the beach at hightide this afternoon, lovely dramatic waves and a high tide but nothing out of the ordinary i would say. Yet!

We're hopefully well out of harm's way, nowhere near the coast. In 2008 we were along the River Yare which is tidal and it flooded. Damage was minimal and the main problem was a lot of dead rats washed up in the garden. Weather here is extremely windy (car pushing sideways on the school run, lots of falling debris) but it's already tailing off from what we had earlier.

DH has left to provide police cover overnight but is not sure what he will be doing on shift tonight. He's with a team of officers who are trained/prepped for this kind of event but quite what DH can offer as an intelligence detective, I'm not sure but him and many colleagues of his rank/specialism have been called in to help out. Hopefully he'll be safe and the worst he'll suffer is extreme exhaustion (left home at 5am this morning to cycle 30 miles to work). I will update if he gives me any further information.

Rooners I live on a hill luckily so the water flows downwards though we always get the bottom of our road flooding! I'm quite high up so I think I'll be ok! I think my chickens want to come in! I woke up today opened the curtains and got a funny picture of one of the chickens sitting on my window ledge staring in! I can't add it here, its a funny pic to!

Lem i read about seasalter, beach is behind my house but haven't walked down there, had a really lazy day! Sounds a bit windy out there though!

Thanks showy. He will be tired!

Just seen a video on Facebook of a place at Hest Bank I think it is
The power of the flood has actually ripped up the carpark, people's cars underwater and they were stuck inside the building

This BBC page has their rolling updates and there are a huge number of incidents already.

Apparently the Quayside at Newcastle is under water (is the Cooperage pub still going?)

Can I show my blatant ignorance and ask:

What happens with the water coming down river if the Thames Barrier is closed???

An old neighbour of mine has just said on facebook that he's taking his kids to watch the high tide at wells (next the sea)

I'm sure the authorities will appreciate him educating them... Dick

I want to delete him but need to know now