Storm Darragh

[Frozensnowflake]

winds of 80mph are predicted to hit parts of Ireland and the UK over Friday and Saturday. I’m north wales and we’re looking at winds of around 72mph on Saturday according to the met office. Lots of local events have been cancelled. Anyone else potentially affected by the storm?

I have never driven in 70mph winds but I’m guessing it’s very much not advisable?

Very glad to hear that, you were first to get hit. Still very blustery and freezing cold in the north. I believe it is a north wind and it's certainly brutal. Hope your leccy is restored soon.

North Antrim coast Northern Ireland.
We have had 3 Stena ferries unable to dock taking shelter off the North Antrim coast, an airport bus crash and lots of trees down.

Wind's still howling. I thought our fence was coming down earlier today but it's still standing.

Yes Ireland really did spare Britain the worst! So many people without power I hope it all gets reconnected soon.

Thanks @AInightingale yes it's a north-west wind alright. My dd came down by coach from Dublin to Cork last night after a gig and she said the bus was veering from side to side on the road 😬

Rumours abound here that we are currently being powered by the local hydroelectric and not the national grid, meaning the power may go off again at any time.

DD may combust if she doesn't get to watch strictly, which would at least be warming, I suppose.

Lovely to see OYBBK back!

A tad breezy in the NE but nothing like Wales has had. I'm always twitchy with storms after Arwen when we had 8 days without power. I've upped my preps since then, with a battery for DH's cpap and a woodburner in my kitchen with a wee oven, however I would rather not do the extended power outage again. Hope all those currently off get reconnected soon.

Wales here. We've got this until tomorrow apparently. Our flooding can only get worse apparently. Dogs have been very good despite missing their walks.

Grandsons wanted to use the emergency radio in a power cut, so mum turned the lights off. They're happy now.

@justasking111 hope you’re okay. Are you at risk of flooding?

No we're on the side of the hill all the water runs past us, into a housing estate mostly bungalow properties. They have flooded in the past. Before they built there, it was farmland with ponds for the run off. Water always finds a way back.

At the bottom of the hill is Conwy river NRW are monitoring that. Thankfully the tides are very small.

Casting an eye further parts of Spain are being battered by a storm. Second time this year poor people.

Constant rain here in the NE of England and rain water keeps coming under my door. My conservatory is also leaking. The wind has also been a constant 60mph with bigger gusts.

We have this on our side until about 8pm tomorrow night. It's going to be a very long weekend.

Hopefully some of it has passed for those who have had it worst. Here's the current rain radar map.

Wind damage is awful and flooding is heartbreaking. I've been there before, so my heart goes out to anyone affected.

Crazy world!

We've got 67 mph gusts now on the east coast and it hasn't stopped raining since 11 this morning.
In for a long night.

Still taking a battering here in West Wales, gone to bed in defeat but wish I hadn't as the wind is still banging into my window and wall, it's quite anxiety making but I have a large whisky so that should help. It's the duration of it making so much damage, lots of things came down this afternoon after nearly 24 hours of 50-80 mile an hour winds. There's a few power cables down in the main village now too. Our electricity not expected back until at least 12pm tomorrow.

How you doing @Jellykat I think you might be near DS3s girlfriend and therefore might not reply because your phone signal has gone very sketchy! So sad to hear Eglwswrw school has taken a hit too despite the fact that they are our biggest rivals in the Eisteddfod

@BobBobBobbing 8 DAYS!!! Oh my goodness you have my sympathy, 24 hours is more than enough.

Still ferocious winds here (west Somerset/east Devon border -ish), national grid now saying power expected back by 6pm tomorrow. Scant mobile signal most of today has made it all worse for not knowing what's going on.

It could be worse, of course, but am annoyed at the waste from needing to bin loads of chilled/frozen food tomorrow.

you’re having g a terrible time of it 💐💐

I can see the Bristol Channel from my house but quite high up and so far no damage. But the wind has been scary and relentless

Can you re freeze? I know people say no but I have loads of times. No I’ll effects yet

@Scampuss Going to have to bin everything here too, so depressing. I have tiny crap fridges and despite not opening the doors at all one of them is already quite warm. It's those things you forget about when you think of the romance of a power cut and candles etc!

This is why batch cooking and freezing in advance is now a waste of time and food in winter in the UK

We had that message too @Scampuss but the power came back on earlier this evening.
Fingers crossed for you.

I opened my fridge this morning to get milk and some breakfast bits out after power had been out about 7 hours and stuff was already warming up. I've got a little tabletop freezer I use just for bread that was nearly empty anyway and the small loaf and pack of rolls were half de-frosted by lunchtime so I took the opportunity to finish de-frosting it. My main freezer is fairly full as I've been saving bits for Xmas. Am hoping I can at least save my extortionate GF pastries.

And I've got a supermarket shop coming tomorrow which I couldn't amend as I had no internet!

Torches had batteries, have plentiful candles and matches, power packs were fully charged, but can't do anything about the food.

Fingers crossed for all our power back tomorrow 🤞🏼

Just watching "The storm of 1947". Seven weeks of snow -20c temperatures, followed by horrendous flooding, followed by ferocious storms. The rationing was stricter than in the war. People literally starving.

So I guess I shouldn't moan.

Proper being battered here now. Sounds like it's trying to take my windows out.
Not happy.

@lostinwales we aren't even rural! Main road between Sunderland and Newcastle but we were amongst the last to get reconnected as our lines were broken but safe so not a priority. In the end I sent dh to a hotel as he couldn't cope without his cpap while I stayed home with 3 kids, a dog and a broken arm. This is why I tell people to never rely on being a priority customer as we got NO help. They even quibbled about compensation, although agreed it in the end. We were lucky that we had woodburners, a gas hob and I have a candle obsession.

Our log supplier is also the local tree surgeon and we got given the tree that took out our power back as logs so it ended up providing us with heat in the long run.

Just 3 weeks ago (the snowy week!) we were without gas for 4 days after a gas leak revealed ancient corroded pipes, and the gas people were fantastic, we were regularly updated, provided with heaters within a couple of hours, offered hotplates, and then afterwards sent a letter telling us how to claim our statutory compensation. Whereas National Grid seem to be consistently crap.