knightrider

I know this is abit off topic but Peter Cockroft our local weather forecaster just hinted at some pretty nasty winds arriving at the weekend, steady winds of 25mph with stronger gusts and heavy rain so could be looking at some Gales. Maybe it could be the 1st signs of Katia rolling in off the Atlantic, with had storms like this in the past where the winds are quite strong in the days leading upto the main event then things go abit mad lol I'm thinking Sunday onwards could get very interesting indeed.

Well it said gusts of 60/70mph on this website I went on, but your right if it where to be sustained winds of that sort of strength then yes it would be exceptional and boardering on hurricane-force, I could imagine gusts of well over 100mph if that where to be the case!

To be honest I think the suggestions of 80mph sustained winds with gusts over 100mph are abit exagerated anyway, that kind of event would only be expected to hit the UK about once a century, twice at the most. That would be on a par with the 1987 storm, infact worse in terms of sustained winds! According to the BBC weather website the storm is going to fizzle out before it reaches the UK and other websites I've read suggest gusts of 60-70mph so quite stormy yes but nothing exceptional.

Been a long time since a major storm truely effected London and south-east, even the 07 storm didn't effect us that badly here compared with the south coast and futher west. The last real big 1 I can think of was in October 2002 so it would be nice if we get a proper blast from this like 80mph+ would be decent. Blimey that is massive, looks like it would cover the whole of the UK pretty much if the centre of it where to cross the midlands. I remember them saying Irene was about 600 miles across.

Nice, not ever so far away from me then but a fair distance! So do you think the whole of Britain will feel the effects of this?

Hi Cumulus, just out of interest where abouts is Lichfield? Just want to get an idea of how far away you are from me if you think this storm could be heading your way!

Sounds nasty! Wasn't the night of the 29th - 30th October 2000 by any chance was it? We had 90mph plus winds here in Essex, my bedroom window was rumbling like it was abouts to smash in :-/

Probably explains why it didn't make the national news down here cause it didn't effect populated areas of Scotland whereas I believe Glasgow and Edinborough where badly hit in 05.

I cant say I remember this being on the news or anything, the last major storm to effect the south of the UK was the January 2007 storm and the last I can think of in Scotland that was like major storm/hurricane force was in 2005. But maybe I just didn't watch the news that day back in May lol Did it effect mainland Scotland or was it just the Shetland isles? And I hope that red arrow on that last predicted track is wrong cause if the centre of it sweeps across the midlands like that suggests then southern England including London could be bombed by this lmao. I does look as if we are going to get a pretty windy day Sunday though before this is even due to arrive!

Judging by the predicted track I'd say this will effect Scotland and perhaps northern Ireland and the extreme north of England but anywhere south of the Midlands should escape most of it's effects. Still if the winds where sustained 80mph gusting to 100mph like predicted then this would be 1 of the worst storms to hit the UK in some years. Certainly going to be interesting to follow it's track and I do expect the track and predicted intensity to change day by day.

I think the BBC forecasts have slightly underestimated some of the winds we could get tommorow, they've predicted 50mph but the speed in which the wind arrows moved through when I watched the lunchtime forecast earlier suggested nearer 70mph on south facing coasts and maybe as much as 60mph even around London and the home counties.

After some good spells of sunshine earlier the sky is turning very grey and dark now!

The 1987 storm also developed in the Azores didn't it? I know it's main source of gaining power came when passing over the Bay of Biscay.

As I said with trees at this time of year in full leaf 55-60mph could pottencially bring down smaller trees which is what has been forecast for coastal regions!

LOL 40mph is a strong wind I grant you that, but it's barely enougth to bring down a branch let alone a tree. Winds would have to be gusting in access of 55mph to do significant damage to branches, and well over 65-70mph to bring a major tree down 60mph might just rip up a baby sapling. Really getting up here now with just had a gust that must have been pushing 40mph :0 Shock horror a tree has just crashed through my window....not! lol It's just started to rain too.

I would go along with that, we've had 35mph here easily I would say, it's going to get stronger tonight probably peaking around the rush hour tommorow morning as the heaviest of the rain passes through. And your right 50-60mph would warrent a more publisized weather warning, but I only expect that coastal areas will see gusts this high, inland more typically 40mph. No I dont think it is, I think Irene moved up into Greenland and Iceland then moved east just passing nothern Scotland sometime last week by which time it was hardly anything at all just got abit breezy in Shetland I think. This low is too far south!

Judging by that wind gusts map looks like somewhere up the Thames estuary is going to get the highest gusts, not too far from me maybe 20 miles east or so. Approaching 55mph in that zone by the looks of it

I doubt it, it is very unusual for hurricane's to track that far up the east coast of America like Irene did and even if it did reach New York just like Irene it'll barely be worth mentioning by the time it gets there cause it would have lost most of it's punch and at worst will be a category 1 if not then it'll probably been downgraded to tropical storm status.

Their forecasting the pottencial for 70mph gusts on exposed coasts now, that's quite unusual for this early in the autumn some may even say we are in late summer. Gales dont normally occur until late September early October at the earliest.

I'd estimate we've had gusts in the 35 to 40mph range here in Upminster since around lunchtime, judging by the weather forecast for tonight and tommorow morning I expect we could get gusts in access of 45mph occasionally 55-60mph.