Met Office: SIGNIFICANT WEATHER EVENT will hit UK in days as HUGE Atlantic storm ROARS in

Dry And sunny here in the east.

reply to post by fatpastyhead


It's dry and Sunny here in Berkshire too, just 100 miles from the "disaster zone" (although we've had flooding too!) but look at the Weather map for later....

There is a band of Blue working it's way towards the UK...

End times are nigh! Build your Ark's now!

reply to post by Soloprotocol

Bone dry up here...

Glorious here in the North East....almost like being in the Caribbean.

...I hope England Dissolves.

Tut tut.

stumason

Soloprotocol
Bone dry up here...I hope England Dissolves.

Ah, Solo..... One day, we might get more than a single line of poorly thought out wit... One day...

edit on 7/2/14 by stumason because: (no reason given)

Never.

reply to post by Soloprotocol


I had to give you a star for that one...

At least you're consistent!

reply to post by Soloprotocol


Don't give up your day job.

Lord Smith Gives No Apology

Lord Smith has said he is "very proud" of the Environment Agency's work and will not step down despite days of criticism over the response to the floods.

His first visit to Somerset comes after Royal Marines were drafted in to get people in Moorlands to safety after flood defences broke on Thursday night.

Confronted by a crowd of reporters, Lord Smith said: "I have no intention of resigning. I'm very proud of the work of the Environment Agency and its staff in the face of the most extreme weather."

"Local people have made very clear the distress they've experienced and the difficulties they've been facing," he added.

The video on the Sky news site shows Lord Smith addressing press and residents, many are frustrated with the response.

Worst hit spots
A quick search on most UK news outlets will show the scale of the damage. With villages being cut off for over a month, and a lot of work has been carried out by other residents, particularly at the start of the flooding. The question that will ALWAYS arise in situations like this is "why didnt X do Y sooner?".

Even here in Hertfordshire, some rivers are beginning to succomb to the pressure, and with more storms seemingly on a never ending queue to lash the UK, I can see this continuing for another month, and the cleanup will take a lot longer than that.

reply to post by stumason


Lovely sunny day in North Yorkshire. I have to say, it hasn't been that bad up here so far this winter. A few rainy weeks, full rivers but no real flooding. Makes a change as flood seems to be the natural state here for parts of the year. Then again, it is another area that was historical marshy swampland, so no surprises there.

I would bet it hasn't been much fun in the Scilly Isles the last few weeks........I think i would be terrified if i lived there as it doesn't seem very high and slap in the middle of the massive wave heights.

fatpastyhead
reply to post by Soloprotocol

 

Don't give up your day job.

I work Nights.

reply to post by RichAwake


I think he is actually not that far from the truth..

Yes, some places have been inundated, but what you don't here about on the news is all the towns and villages which have been protected by the rising waters.... Not very newsworthy that

"Breaking News - Flood defences work".... Nah, the 24hr channels want chaos, not good news...

EDIT: It's worth noting the amount of homes they are currently saying as flooded - in the low hundreds. Yes, bad for those in them, but in the grander scheme of things, not that bad..... Considering..

reply to post by stumason


Ah yeah looks like we are all getting this time. Going to be an interesting weekend.

Cheers for the link.

stumason
reply to post by RichAwake

 

I think he is actually not that far from the truth..

Yes, some places have been inundated, but what you don't here about on the news is all the towns and villages which have been protected by the rising waters.... Not very newsworthy that

"Breaking News - Flood defences work".... Nah, the 24hr channels want chaos, not good news...

EDIT: It's worth noting the amount of homes they are currently saying as flooded - in the low hundreds. Yes, bad for those in them, but in the grander scheme of things, not that bad..... Considering..

edit on 7/2/14 by stumason because: (no reason given)

I agree with that completely, Not being a local to Somerset i don't have any first hand accounts, but it goes without saying that they are trying to do what they can, and when its over such a wide area it is difficult to ensure the correct resources are in the right place. I don't envy their task in the slightest!

Yet it is natural (and completely understandable imo) for residents whose homes have been flooded to get agitated, and to want answers and action.

Cheers.

This is a well done, simple, straight forward, no bull #e explanation of the upcoming storm front due to hit us in the UK over tonight (Friday 7th) and Saturday.

www.youtube.com...=332

reply to post by TrueBrit


Exactly the entire thing is a sham of mismanagement.

Prevention is better than cure and the recent measures or rather lack of prevention, non maintenance of existing strategies as well as the EU paying farmers subsidies to farm land only if they remove the ''unnecessary vegetation'' ie trees, which are very necessary in draining water from ground, without it there are floods and eventually soil erosion.

I read about the rerouting of rivers as an attempt at management of their flow but it was counteractive and only made it worse, rivers have a natural meandering course as that is the behaviour of water, it allows for minimal flooding and is manageable.

Surely the government should be consulting the correct channels for such measures of the environment instead of blundering think tanks that know zilch about landscape management and maintaining habitable ecosystems in a holistic way.

Now is the time for them to get a grip on this as each successive year has seen extreme weather events and according to research is likely to remain as such or worse for the foreseeable future.

The 100 million being spend on dredging and repairs now could have been used more wisely and cost effectively for prevention. Ultimately the way the governments budgeting is structured needs reevaluating, as often this it is the preventative factor in gaining access to funds for non essential maintenance, policies sometimes decree that ''essential'' is only after major incidents like the somerset levels floods.

Thousands of years of habitation in fragile ecosystems has worked because of careful land management, it has to be looked to again with even more thought given to longevity for the survival of a lot of British towns and cities.

More information on the impending Fri/Sat storm ''Charlie'' and the possibility of another storm on Wednesday.

travel.aol.co.uk...

He adds that winds will create monster 15 metre waves on the coast, saying: "With storm force 10 winds expected for 24 hours to the south of Ireland, huge seas will again approach south west Britain on Saturday. Significant wave heights will approach 15m off Cornwall and will then run up towards south west Wales and also to the west Channel."


"In the next two weeks the southern portion of the UK from Cornwall and Devon, south Wales to Essex and Suffolk can expect 200 to 300% of normal precipitation, or two to three times as much as normal.

"Some places in the south west will probably receiving a month's worth in the next five days.

"The next band of heavy rain will sweep eastwards on Friday night and clear the east coast before dawn. This will bring another 20mm to 25mm over West Wales and 20mm to 20mm over southern counties by Saturday morning. At the same time southerly gales developing along the south coast, so many areas receiving a similar battering from the sea as on Wednesday.

"We are calling this storm 'Charlie'.

"During Saturday a deep area of low pressure will move across Ireland to Scotland with squally and wintry showers sweeping around the southern side across Wales and western England.

"Gales around all coasts and severe gales around Cornwall, Devon, and up to West Wales and Somerset. We can expect 80mph gusts again over exposed coasts in the south west, and inland across much of central and southern Britain 60mph gusts are likely, which will threaten some structural damage.

"Scotland and the north of England miss the worst of the winds, but showers will fall as snow over the Pennines and Scottish Mountains."

He adds that winds will create monster 15 metre waves on the coast, saying: "With storm force 10 winds expected for 24 hours to the south of Ireland, huge seas will again approach south west Britain on Saturday. Significant wave heights will approach 15m off Cornwall and will then run up towards south west Wales and also to the west Channel."

Leon adds the the winds will only gradually die down on Sunday with further heavy showers in the morning, especially near southern coasts as showers run east along the Channel.

And the outlook for next week is not much brighter. Leon says: "There will be more severe weather next week – thankfully Monday will be quieter but a band of rain moving east early on Tuesday will bring snow to northern Britain and higher ground in Wales with more than 10cm possible.

"The next storm may run further south along the Channel on Wednesday and could be very deep and ferocious, impacting Northern France as well as the UK – but this is something we will track.

"Potential for severe gales and 25-50mm of rainfall across Britain, plus heavy snow for northern Britain."

stumason
Typical hype from the Express, so won't put much stock in it. Yes, the weather is a bit crappy but overall, it's not that bad. It is Winter, afterall...

I'm also puzzled by the rage directed at the "Government", as if they can stop the rain falling! It is ironic that those doing the moaning are the one's who decided to live on flood plains.

The Somerset Levels are a flood basin and, before being cleared for farmland and housing, it was a large wetland. Back in the Roman period, the people who lived there did so on man made islands and stilted housing - even then they only occupied the sites in the Summer, moving uphill in Winter.

leylandthinker
The government helped out the people who are suffering in syria which is great but i think they gave too much and now they cant even help out there own people. There are thousands of people in the south of england who have been enduring rain,floods and prince charles visiting the south which i think is pointless. How is a roysl visiting going to stop this mess. The government need to but there thinking caps on and help these poor people of the south

Charles visited because he has a vested interest in the area, has an affinity with Country folk and has also donated £50,000 to assist in the cleanup.

It's not hype mate.

This is the worst storm that has hit Mounts Bay since 1963 or 62.

I've only seen one storm worse, but that was on the north coast of Cornwall.

The prom and the Jubilee Pool are pretty much destroyed.

It's not so much the individual storms (coastal damage has been unusual, but inland, neither wind speeds nor rain totals from individual events have been abormal), it's the consistency of such stormy weather - and the accumulated damage/flooding. That is unusual. This has been going on now for nigh on 2 months.

As noted, we have another storm tonight/tomorrow (which, contrary to certain Daily Express misheadlines will not be the worst since 1987, but it will be the worst since Wednesday) and yet another on Tuesday/Wedneday for which the details remain uncertain.

Meanwhile, many of us in Britain have not seen a flake of snow this winter. Which is also unsual. Whilst high ground in Scotland has seen ...... more snow than anyone can ever remember! Also unusual (most winters there are spells of milder weather so the snow does not accumulate above 2,500ft for week after week after week as it has this winter.)

We live in interesting times.

It's starting to get very windy here in the South Wales Valleys. Bins are going over and it's started the neighbours dogs off.

That video is really scarey!

Excuse the pun, but it really has been "wave upon wave" of storm fronts, when one travels off to the east, a new one fresh from the Atlantic rolls in. It's unusual to have so many roll in one after the other.

I guess these storms have been practicing their queueing skills out at sea.
"Take a ticket, wait for your number to be called!"

reply to post by RichAwake


Proper British Storms then - they know how to queue and take their turn..