Lauren

Stop ruining it for me Ben

Personally I think it's a bit extreme to think being a fan of extreme weather is a bad thing . People are fans of motosport, boxing, horse racing, football. All of which have unfortunate casualties. Being a fan of extreme weather and wanting it to happen IS NOT the same as wishing death on people. If anything those who are fans of extreme weather are more likely to spot this kind of stuff happening and getting better warnings in place. Much better to be a fan of the extremities of nature than to be a fan of terrorist extremism.

I wasn't born when this storm hit, by my parents regail the story to me often, so i shall repeat what they told me. My Mum being a weather nut herself (although not as bad as me!)told my Dad during the day that a big storm was coming and my dad shouldn't go to work. My dad being the typical manly man thought nothing of it and took my brother and sister to work with him near Sevenoaks. It wasn't until late that warnings were issued and my Dad decided to come back home. So him, my brother and sister were coming home in a Citroen 2CV and getting badly buffeted by the winds and my dad recalls coming over a bridge and fighting with the wheel so he didn't swerve over the lanes. They were very neasrly hit by a lorry that was having the same problem and the lorry very nearly toppled over, which would have been disastrous on that bridge. They made it home and dad ran around the garden securing stuff. By this point debris had started to be scattered and all the neighbourhood men were out securing stuff whilst the women were all inside filling pots with water in case the supply went out and finding candles in case the power went. My brother who was 10 at the time was wholly unbothered about the whole thing and went to bed and slept the whole way through. My sister being 7 was quite scared at the time and spent the night with Mum and dad and the 2 cats on the bed. Mum says she remembers listening to the tiles being lifted and to calm my sister down they played a game of guessing how long it would take for a tile to come off once it started rattling. My dad got the video camera out and started filming out the window, but when they viewed the video later all you could see was blackness, so it was a failure. One of the roof tiles smashed through the car windscreen and this was a common theme for our road. Mum went to the toilet and came back to tell them that the huge tree in the garden had blown over and crushed the neighbours shed. They couldn't sleep as the wind kept battering against the windows which was apparently deafening and quite scary as they thought they were going to blow out. The next morning they surveyed the damage. My brother couldn't believe he had missed the whole thing. There was debris everywhere and the neighbours all helped to cut up the fallen tree and remove it and later all pitched in to help our neighbour rebuild his shed. The cats had a great time playing will all the debris in the garden. School was closed for 2 days because it had no power and several of the windows were blown through which my siblings were delighted about. The next few days was an effort by the whole street to clear up and rebuild. Back then it was very much a case of doing it yourself. Apparently the community spirit was lovely as everyone who had a skill did their bit. My Dad repaired the cars, the man 4 doors up was a roofer by trade and fixed our rooves, another neighbour had lots of curring equipment to deal with fallen trees. I would like to think that if something like this happened again, the same sort of community spirit would come out.

I was surprised we only got 3mm of rain yesterdy. Despite only raining hard for maybe 10 minutes and it drizzling most of the day, i thought we would of had more.

Overdue some good storms too!

I hope so Robbie. Mind you it was windy enough to crack and break one of our fence panels. I thought I heard wood split last night, but this morning reveals what it was.

This is how it was for us, rain wasn't torrential either.

Anyone got an ETA of the time the squall is dut to hit North Kent? I have a nasty feeling it may hit between 7.30pm and 8pm when I will be in an enclosed building with no windows

Just speaking to electrician at work and he recommends here. http://www.windguru.cz/int/

Not good. People drive terribly here in heavy rain and the M2 bridge is awful in heavy winds. Just had a text from a friend in Scotland. Apparently the dog is whimpering under the bed and the cats are hiding with the dog. A never before seen occurance apparently!

What do they mean by bawbag?

So is the storm supposed to properly hit in a couple of hours from now?

I know this is possibly supposed to go in the Storm Enthusiasts group, but seeing with the current Northern storm, I thought here might be more appropriate. Do you remember the 1987 storm, how was it for you? Tell, tell

We're not even in the effected area, but several wheelie bins have just been blown over!

I am most dissapointed thisd thread was not called Storm Lauren But seriously, keep safe folks, it's gonna be a bad one.

It's actually been quite gusty here this afternoon, no idea on the speed but enough to shake the house!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/09/02/danish-footballer-struck-by-lightning-has-leg-amputated-115875-21642457/ They put him in the coma to give the body a chnace to heal itself.

*cough* Storm Lauren *cough* They mentioned on the radio the SE could see a high water rise and may catch the tail ends of these winds.

Isn't it 3seconds/km or 5seconds/mile? If you felt the static that would be very close indeed. During El Gordo we had a strike that hit in the garden 4 doors up and that was incredibly loud and immediate, but no static, so yours must have been closer than that. This is true, most strike victims survive, although about 60% end up with some sort of permanent effect from it. When I was doing my CPR training we learnt about it. If it hits your pacemaker, you're pretty Lettuceed though.

My area normally gets the most of the snow along with the North Downs in Kent.

The weather this weekend is almost the exact opposite wind and rain wise to what was predicted at the beginning of the week!

I wouldn't be surprised if they exist. I'm surprised someone hasn't set up a camera in an area they are thought to be. When we were doing our DofE expedition several years ago in the South Downs we came across a skeleton. It was a horse skeleton that had been totally stripped of meat apart from a little bit at the back and yo could see something had been gnawing on it. We thought it was a horse that had died of natural causes and anumals had eaten it, but then we distinctly heard the sound of a big cat growl. The same noise they make when protecting a kill. We didn't stay around for long enough to find out, we legged it. Of course it could have been our minds playing tricks on us, but to this day I still wonder.

Been raining constantly for the last hour and a half. Not hard, but certainly enough to make huge puddles.

Yeah but the MetO was predicting heavy rain and winds for my area last night and we got neither, so I shall take it with a pinch of salt.

Jealous!