Storm Ciarán

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

This is an early heads up.

Models have consistently been bringing in a deep low pressure for sometime over Wed/Thurs. As is often the case, details are yet to be nailed down, but some of the models are producing some severe gusts - southern coastal winds of up to 90mph and more widespread inland winds of around 60mph. With storms, comes rain too unfortunately. A wobble in the track could take them further north or, keep it all in France. Exactly when and where the low pressure develops will make a big difference in the outcome. More details to follow.

If the storm is named, it will be Storm Ciaran. At that point I'll ask MNHQ to change the title appropriately.

Hello! I am on the south coast- Southampton.

It seems to have settled now- but partner saying I should still stay inside with kids.

Surely it's safe to get in the car and go somewhere? Even to the shops..?

Apparently we're still cut off from the mainland with heavy flooding on the causeway. DD should have been in college today, which is not closed despite the bad weather. It took some convincing of her tutor that she could not get there because the only road off the island had been closed by the Police, due to extreme high tide and flooding. High tide should have started to go down 2 hours ago, but it is clearly taking a very long time for the flooding to be passable.

Near the coast I would try to get salt off and out of the car. With normal conditions I never clean my car, as it is a waste of resources, but would try to get the worst of the salt off it.

I'm in York so all fine, doesn't appear to be getting anywhere near us, for that i am grateful.
To everyone impacted i hope your all safe and without too much damage. Please look after yourselves.

@orandeyu I'm a little bit west of you. Just got back from driving to Ringwood. The wind isn't too bad, but be aware there's a lot of standing water on the roads and motorway, and too many people are insisting on driving too fast for the conditions. Was nearly in an accident when a car overtook me at speed and then aquaplaned. Take it easy, leave lots of space.

I don't know anything about the HGV/lorry industry, but on the lorry driver killed in France, or lorry drivers killed in storms with weather warnings issued generally, I feel awful. I know weather warnings aren't always accurate but they must have known they were taking a gamble with their life driving into strong winds while most other people were sheltering indoors and battening things down, I wonder if their family was waiting for them to return...

I know lots of money is at stake (for the fat cats, not the lorry drivers who are just trying to earn their daily wage) but why can't they just mandate road and port closure for safety, or suspend HGV movement before and not after driver deaths – Dover is now closed (and on that note what will happen to the lorry drivers stuck in the queue now?) and HGVs are temporarily banned on Brittany roads. Or is it that the storms happen too often and the forecasts aren't definitive? Also, how would insurance and contract law (my background, but not the lorry/shipping industry) in general deal with proactive suspension of lorry drivers' duties? Can anyone explain?

Think we’ve escaped any unusually strong winds here fortunately. But lots of rain and flooding and string enough winds to bring a number of trees down.

Bus drivers are not bothered about warnings not to drive through flooding. Which has led to some interesting moments as the water came under the door.

We are down by the beach in Poole. The nightmare started when our block management company suddenly ceased trading 6 weeks ago leaving us with no management, no money and no records. We thought we had done well to organise a bank account, an EGM and payment of a supplementary service charge and to identify and rehire all our regular maintenance people.

We relaxed too soon. The wind has dislodged tiles. My neighbour collected 14 litres of water from his leak (luckily he used a 15 litre bucket). But worse still it seems to be coming in above the lift shaft and we have a paddlng pool below the lift car, a machinery room with several inches of water, no obvious on/off power switch and a lift maintenance man with lots of other water related problems elsewhere. The roof is far too wet to get anyone up, and that part of the roof is too high to access without scaffolding.

If I had gone to a fortune teller two months ago and they had told me I had a future in property management, I would not have believed them.

Next question for the fortune teller. When will the rain stop?

@Needmoresleep sounds incredibly stressful.

The main train line is closed now (Devon) so that's that for travel. I thought the storm had stopped, and it's died down twice but it seems to be starting up again! No thunder or lightning though.

I am on a train down there now. Lots of delays and cancellations, but we finally set off, only to have to stop for 30 minutes because of a trespasser on the track. This is really not my week. It's not a lot of people's week.

It is sort of a task that has landed on me and a neighbour. We have tried to offer bits of the work to others but they all claim to be too busy. (And seemingly too busy to say thank you either.) A favourite was me suggesting someone might help by doing the initial legwork on finding a new management company only for her to refuse on the basis I would do it so much better. As soon as the rain stops and the waters subside, I need to seek advice on AIBU on how to offload this unwelcome role. (But will try not divert this thread further.)

A question that perhaps kitten can answer. I felt surprisingly low yesterday, to the extent I was bad company which made me feel worse. Do changes in atmospheric pressure cause mood changes?

@Needmoresleep I know plenty of people who get migraines, etc when the atmospheric pressure starts to drop and as a teen for a number of years I used to wake up with nosebleeds but only during the summer. I wouldn't be surprised if it can also affect moods.

Oh god @Needmoresleep I feel for you. After past experience I am very grateful for our professional building management company who are proactive and get things done.

Hoping you manage to get everything sorted sooner rather than later.

@Needmoresleep having rain pouring into a property you are trying to property manage (whilst trying not to be the one who does this) would be enough to make me feel low even without the effect of pressure changes.

Oxfordshire (north), Pressure increasing, Low this morning was 960 now 972mb.
Wind increased to F4/5. Difficult to tell direction in a middle of a suburb.

Well it was a total non-event in Bristol in the end, unless there is more to come. Sending love to those it was NOT a total non-event for!

Our yellow rain warning for Northeast England has now been stood down. It's still 'orrible out there but not so persistent. Hopefully the floods have started to ease.

My brother and I inherited what my mother called her weather heads. A sudden drop in air pressure and boom my head 🙈

@Needmoresleep god I'm so sorry this is so stressful and I hope you get it sorted soon. We are also in a property management nightmare - we have been complaining about faulty gutters and roofing since early summer and been fobbed off with claims that they just needed cleaning. It's got worse and worse and now reached an emergency state. Finally the management company have acted, but after a storm is the worst time to be trying to get people lined up to get work done, and we're now paying emergency prices. I'm so angry with them!

@roadsong

With regard to the French HGV drivers death and

I know lots of money is at stake (for the fat cats, not the lorry drivers who are just trying to earn their daily wage) but why can't they just mandate road and port closure for safety, or suspend HGV movement before and not after driver deaths –

FWIW the French can and do close roads, indeed whole departments when it gets extreme, for example Finisterre was a decreed no drive department at some point last night or this morning to allow rescue services unhindered access.

Sadly the HGV driver who lost his life last night was actually nowhere near any of the Red departments in the north west, he was over in north east France, well inland, near the Belgian border..

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/meteo/tempete/tempete-ciaran/tempete-ciaran-un-chauffeur-routier-tue-dans-un-accident-de-la-route-annonce-le-ministre-des-transports_6159135.html

Baby cam lady was safe and sound on bbc news tonight. Very cute baby too.

Is there another storm coming in behind Ciarán?

Twas said that another one would follow on this weekend.

ListenLinda there is another low pressure coming through, which gets to UK on Saturday. I don't think it is a named storm at the moment.

I'm also Poole (Canford Heath) and was thinking how mild it was compared to what I was expecting.

We've had no property damage thankfully.
I appreciate we've been lucky compared to some though.

It does make me realise how well the Préfecture system works in France in these circumstances. We get all our information about local conditions and what to expect from them. Today they were tweeting every hour with wind speeds in the major towns across Calvados.