Wivenswold

The current franchising system is bust, as for Network Rail, 50 years of under investment in our Railways has led to this point. I highly recommend making sure your MP is aware of your anger, because pretty much every problem with our railways lies at the door of Government and the Department for Transport.

From a veteran of the 1987 campaign, a sobering reminder that back then we had 70mph winds gusting to 100mph. Tomorrow looks bad but not THAT bad.

You'd think that wouldn't you. I used to work in a busy London station. "There's no decent shops here, I should have gone to Romford on the bus instead, can I get a refund?" Remains my favourite.

Yes it makes absolute operational and safety sense. Though for a laugh, do have a look through Train Companies' Twitter feeds to get a sense of the national feeling of self importance "We can send a rocket to the moon but one bit of wind and all the trains are cancelled" and "I'm important and 15 mins late getting to York. It's a disgrace" and even "Rail Company cancelled all the trains and it's not even that windy where i live" -type comments.

I've had four proper white Easters in my lifetime, 2 White Christmases, I'm near the warmest part of the North Sea so we have big season lag here. Heatwaves in May are frequently ruined with cold onshore breezes.

1. You live within the largest heat island in the UK, the London Basin. 2. It's more likely to snow at Easter. 3. I don't think you'd be pleased if an Official White Christmas is triggered because it wouldn't necessarily mean there's snow on the ground. 4. "It never snows at Christmas" is the sort of comment that invites derision. I've lived in the counties around London all my life and have had snow on the ground on Christmas day roughly 6 times, not including 1981, the last true White Christmas in East London where I lived at the time. 5. Always check your contentions against evidence which is easily available on the internet. I honestly don't know how some people would have coped in the days before the internet. 6. I think films and media depictions of White Christmases have made expectations unrealistic. This is not North America. So, the lesson here is that if you want a cooler summer with fewer thunderstorms, move up north and get more snow. If you want to live in the South and see more snow move outside the M25. Your summer temps are usually 3-4oC higher than mine and I'm only 50 miles from you. Them's the shakes. And yes, this snow watch is pointless at this stage.

Nothing here up the coast here in Wivenhoe but that rain was immense. I'm just waiting on 3 soaking and unimpressed cats to come home now. Update, Flash off towards Harwich just now.

Jeez, I know that one. I've got Rheumatoid Arthritis (feet and hands) and Fibromyalgia. Take it easy sir. It's a bad time of the year for it. Mike

Ah yes, the old A120 Streamer in full effect this afternoon.

I think Jo's answered that. The UK Met has a different threshold to the Irish Met, which tips the balance towards them naming a storm before the UK one does. Throw in that Eire generally sees our storms first, then naturally you would expect them to call it first. It's not a case of "wanting" to use the system, it's a little bit more complicated than that.

I'm calling rain for the Tendring Peninsula in Essex. Unlike the Southend area, the system moves slowly over a greater expanse of mild sea (7oC at the moment). I think we're in a better place for a streamer tomorrow though.

Possibly the timing is crucial. The Red box is during the evening drive home, the blue box is mainly rain at that point.

I'm about 40 miles north of you and yet I've had a pretty good summer for storms. Okay so they tailed off July/August but I witnessed about 4 good ones this year. My wife even named our new summer house "Thunder Cabin" due to the amount of time I was in there watching passing storms. So, no, it' hasn't been a poor summer for everyone.

Same here, last couple of gusts sounded like they mean business.

Could someone start a thread where all these pointless and repetitive complaints about the warning systems could go? Some of us are in here for actual updates on what's happening, not what was said might happen and how that pans out for 14 High Street, Myback, Yardshire.

Yes, I did think of SWT. I think they will escape the worst of the winds and they don't have overhead wires that tend to cause problems in the other areas. I'd expect a few train operators to issue advisories or even shut the service down earlier tonight and have a reduced timetable tomorrow morning. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't in these situations.

I think this storm is being a little understated in the press who are still reacting to yesterday's events. From my experience in Railway ops, this one strikes at a bad time of the year and at the worst possible time of the day, while trees are in full leaf and at the start of service, in the dark. I think Greater Anglia, Southeastern, Great Northern, East Coast (LNER) and C2C could potentially suffer. Fallen leaves on damp track will also help to stuff-up the network tomorrow but I've known one broken branch to cancel in excess of 100 trains. So we don't necessarily need particularly high gusts for disruption. 35-45 mph gusts are enough.

Back in the heady times of yesterday, there was speculation over whether Sunday would be Bronagh. I don't know, I think I need a sit down and a coffee.

So, just to clarify. This is the thread for "Storm Bronagh" not the storm afterwards that was previously expected to be named "Storm Bronagh"? I wouldn't be unhappy to not erroneously post in an incorrect thread and cause confusion.

As a juxtaposition, I've got arthritis in all my joints and dread any downturn in temperatures. I shall miss Summer.

With so much going on, I think there will be a lot of cross-over between storms. Might be worth heading this up to encompass the "spell of storms".

Good work all round for the Met Offices. It's interesting to see a few regular "warnings bashers" not in the forum tonight. Round 2 (or is it "3"?) on Friday. It looks interesting and not in a good way. No one should feel bad that these events pique their interest. I often wonder how many lives weather fans save by passing on weather information to their nearest and dearest. For example, I've just advised all of my friends on social media to work from home if possible on Friday "just in case", already had several "thanks, will do" from people. Knowledge is never a bad thing and our knowledge is the result of our interest.

Your warning is for potential damage to and caused by broken branches and resultant disruption to travel. That doesn't seem unreasonable with a mixture of maximum gusts across the models of 36-50mph for South Yorks set against laden trees. That really is enough to cause some serious disruption, one branch can shut down a railway line for hours. There are far more variables than simply the wind speed to consider for each storm. . In this case there's still some variance in the models too which has to be factored in. While the second and third storms may well be stronger for longer, there's probably a reason they haven't issued a warning yet. If it's really causing you so much angst, why don't you tweet them and ask?

It was clearly still relevant anyway as it's been updated. I didn't say they shouldn't be valid, I was saying that if there's doubt, keep the warnings up.

It's much better to keep warning and it turns out to be nothing much than take them down and then have lots of complaints if it strengthens. I'm with them on this, a safety first approach is best when dealing with the great unwashed.