Storm Babet - Extreme rainfall NE Scotland and widely elsewhere*

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2023-10-19

An unusually early warning for the low possibility of some extreme rainfall for NE Scotland at the end of the week. Note the text of the warning!

Please keep a close eye on this one and be prepared to act if necessary. Ensure that if you live in an at risk area that you are ready.
https://ready.scot/respond/severe-weather/rain-and-flooding

*[Please note - title edited again by MNHQ at OP's request to reflect evolving situation]

Awful weather here in Cornwall.. Trees down, flooding and 1500 without power.

No weather warning. Not even a yellow.

Yesterday the wind was so bad there were trees down and damaged roofs..Still no weather warning.

Warnings reducing - England now not under warning just now and the north east ( Scotland ) not amber any more ?

Gone red in Scotland.
wow, don’t recall ever seeing that before

Red warning for rain for NE Scotland, tomorrow and Friday

They're lovely graphics from the Met Office, maybe they've got a new person there!

Fine here at the moment in Cheshire, a little chilly & a little breezy but that's all.

I can see why the metoffice have given a red warning - looking at the GFS, the rain just stalls over that area.

That is baffling Stormzy

I've had one of those government warning phone calls telling us it's going to be wet and windy . Not in red area thank goodness but in amber zone .

I'm interested that there are no warnings for the SE. Perhaps their modelling shows the small low pressure that was being modeled by UKV to not develop in the way shown. It really is a very complex situation.

My general (incredibly unofficial thoughts on how to react to warnings are:

Red warning - only travel in an absolute emergency. be prepared to be cut off and prepare to be self sufficient for a time.

Amber warning - avoid travel wherever possible and be prepared. Keep an eye on warnings.

Yellow warning - use caution, think about outdoor activities and replan risky activities. Keep an eye on warnings in case they evolve.

Is that the new siren system or an automated actual phonecall? Is it a Scottish government initiative, or one from SEPA?

I watched the Met Office Deep Dive on YouTube and they said Aidan McGivern has been working on developing these new graphics and they have not been fully deployed yet. So maybe not a new person, but a new initiative. I agree they are lovely and informative.

Was an automated call , my husband picked it up . I assume it's UK government and came through the landline although husband received one on his mobile , I didn't yet .

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2023-10-20 Yellow warnings now for the SE England for Friday. I guess the Met Office warnings team are up to their ears in issuing warnings. A very busy time for them.

@OhYouBadBadKitten A yellow warning of rain has been issued for Friday for the southeast corner of England. Just as well I am planning to work from home.

Ah cross posts

Thanks for the thread OYBBK. Notwithstanding the worrying danger from Babet, I love your weather threads and all the detail.

Re met office communications, I think they’ve had a rebrand done and it’s really good. Great use of arial.

No problem at all WoollyBat, I only wish I had more time I could dedicate to it!

Incidentally, my Alexa recently offered to let me know when there are severe weather warnings issued for my area. It worked.

Edinburgh is going to be just fine 🤣
Strang that the wind is going to be east and northerly.

It’s raining and a bit windy here in Somerset.

I keep getting notifications that they have been added for my area then cancelled, now my apps crashed.

I didn't know she could do that, just added!

I go to bed in the early hours. Predictions seem to have changed drastically overnight

The only thing wrong with that graphic you posted at 7.47, @OhYouBadBadKitten, is that you can't see the map of Britain it overlays very well. This is the same problem the animated weather map on the Met Office site has. Yes, I can see there's a lot of rain coming, so much that I can't even see the names of the places it's going to fall on.

I usually listen to the weather round-up following the Midnight News on R4, while watching the animated Met Office weather map. Annoyingly, if you move the map mid-animation, the animation halts, and you have to restart it. Also, there is no longer the option to run the animation at double speed. And the map doesn't zoom out quite far enough to see the whole of the British Isles.

As I am in NE England, fairly near the coast, it's the North Sea that is a major factor in our weather. Quite often, this means that the forecasts for my area are wrong, so I tend to take them with a pinch of salt, and after 53 years here as an adult, I'm not too shabby at guessing what the weather will actually be.

@OhYouBadBadKitten Thank you very much for the updates and your thoughts. We'll definitely keep an eye on things before making a decision re travelling. At the moment the state of the sea is forecast to be slight to moderate, which would possibly be OK, but I don't fancy driving from the SE to the NW if it's torrential rain.

@SequentialAnalyst I'm also NE Coast of England. About a mile inland. I'm really not sure what to expect. As you say, we are often not forecast correctly or are a little bit of a forgotten corner.

I've checked in with my Mam to see if there's anything she needs before this all kicks off. She's just around the corner anyhow. The winds have started now and as I'm typing this, my recycling bin has just gone over!

Currently watching the surf cam at Tynemouth Longsands. The kite surfers are out in force!