A very stormy spell by Sarah Wilmshurst
The weather has been so severe in the UK over the past 24 hours that I will concentrate on this in today's weather news.
A very deep low pressure system swept across the North of the UK overnight, bringing with it very heavy rain and exceptionally strong winds.
Starting with the rain, and with around 7 inches (175mm) of wet weather coming down in Capel Curig in Snowdonia in 24 hours, flooding was a big problem in north Wales. At Llanwrwst several homes and businesses have been flooded. Keswick in northwest England was also hit hard, with some residents having to be evacuated using inflatable boats. Carlisle was perhaps the worst affected place, with the worst flooding in 30 years and police saying it had effectively been cut off by floods and falling trees. The rest of the UK also had a spell of wet weather, and there were nearly 100 flood warnings in force for a time. But it is across Wales, northern England and Scotland that the flooding has been at its worst, with severe flood warnings in force here.
Now, onto the wind. Many people across the UK had a sleepless night as they listened to the wind bash and batter their homes and gardens. Tiles came off roofs, trees were uprooted and buildings were damaged. Gusts generally across the UK were in the order of 70 mph. During the early morning the worst affected areas were across southern Scotland and northern England, in particular across Cumbria where gusts of wind reached 90mph on lower ground. Great Dunn Fell sits at 847m, so it is high and exposed, and here a gust of wind was reported at 130mph! The Met Office issued an emergency weather warning – something which is not done very often as the weather is not often this severe.
The police were warning people to stay indoors during the morning, especially in northern England and southern Scotland as the gusts of wind caused travel chaos. Not only was there a lot of debris on the roads, but also several overturned lorries. The A1(M) was affected, but the worst affected road was perhaps the M6 which was closed in several places across Cumbria and Lancashire due to overturned lorries. Dumfries and Galloway police said nearly every road in the region was affected by fallen trees and flooding, with the A7 closed following a landslide and flooding.
Whilst the roads were of course badly affected, there was also severe disruption to ferry services in the North Sea and Irish Sea. A ‘P& O’ ferry ran aground on rocks at Cairnryan in Dumfries and Galloway. There was also disruption to train services because of fallen trees and flooding.
Electricity supplies were also affected. In Cumbria, for example, 50,000 people were without power in the North and West.
If all that was not enough, the Met Office also had to issue a severe weather warning to cover the fact that it was snowing in parts of Scotland!
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