Fiona Robertson

Thanks for the info. I've been watching this system since it first appeared and everything about it filled me with dread. Thing is, I'm not even that knowledgeable about meteorology, but this year with Harvey, Irma and now Maria they just looked "wrong" if you know what I mean. Jose didn't give me that gut feeling. I have friends in Florida, one still without power since Irma, and I was begging them to get out of Florida while Irma was a Cat 3 in the mid Atlantic. My friend in Tampa assured me Irma was hitting the wrong coast... and then it moved further west each day... sigh. Maria has that westerly "feel" to it as well and I can't say why. As I said, I know very little about weather systems, I just watch them avidly so all of this is just uninformed opinion... but Maria still "feels wrong".

This is a nightmare scenario for Dominica! It's gonna be a Cat 5 when it hits.

Does anyone have any idea about previous fast intensifications that we can compare with Maria?

What is it about Jose? The dratted thing keeps doing loop-de-loops! It's like "The Magic Roundabout". Also another question for you. I've been keeping an eye on Lee which had weakened to a tropical depression, but recent sat images show it a bit more organised again. Is this gonna come hard on the heels of Maria and do the same thing?

She's just been upgraded to a cat 2.

Just a thought. Both Irma and Jose ended up further west than the warning cones initially suggested. Maria seemed to be headed due west in a couple of satellite images before reverting to WNW, just as Irma did. Is this going to be a rerun of Irma, forever moving further and further west?

Looking at sea temps along route. If Maria swings a little further north than expected she's going to pass over waters cooler than annual mean for the region. However her current predicted track has her over warmer waters so that would indicate intensification. Question for everyone - at her current size, what effect will landfall in Puerto Rico have? I know that because Irma was so huge many of her landfalls had absolutely no effect.

She's now officially a cat 1 hurricane

Thank you so much for that. I've been worried sick about Hector!

My jaw dropped! Absolutely beautiful, breathtaking... and damned scary...

Got thunder and torrential rain in central belt of Scotland.

That little lot passed over me. It seems there's explosive convection over Lanark. Both of the systems were bow shaped, no hail, but extreme rain.Only the first one gave us thunder.

Looks like it's gonna head in the Swansea direction.

Island has disappeared!

Wow!! That's wild!

Over 40 strikes per minute off Plymouth.

More strikes in the area now, can't all be false.

Strike near Exeter

Started snowing here about 30 mins ago

Snow started here about 20 minutes ago,beginning to lie on wet ground and it's getting heavier. No wind to speak of.

Wnd speed hit the top of the chart now.

Bit like last month when an HGV ignored the "Closed to HGVs" on the Forth Road Bridge and got blown over onto the central reservation, damaging the structures there. They couldn't recover the HGV for hours because the wind was too high for the recovery crane and then welders had to repair the central reservation. The bridge was closed overnight and the driver was charged.

Right, I think I'm beginning to understand what's going on. Now all I have to do is work out the why. Thank you!

I may have just got it!!! Thank you knocker!

Here we go, here we go, here we goooooo...!!! Please!!