29th November - 6th December 2011 Atlantic Storms

[cyclonic happiness]

Second squall line passing over here now, the first only dropped about 5mm of rain so the drought contnues!!

[fergieweather]

Just in on wires from colleagues at BBC Manchester, for info - (note on radar line convection elements over this site report) - -

"What's being described as a mini tornado's hit Stockport. One woman has been taken to stepping hill hospital after a chimney stack collapsed on her. Emergency services are on the scene. Tiles are said to have blown off the roof damaging cars .. and tables and chairs have been blown up the street. Dave Ashton works in Heaton Moor and saw what happened...."

[Lauren]

Blimey! Hope she is OK.

Is this still on for hitting the SE? The winds are really getting violent here.

[Team Jo]

Gone very Dark! Winds are Gusting considerably, the cats are spooked and my boiler pilot light keeps blowing out. Not much Rain here yet, just drizzle - Lauren you must be quite nearby to me?

[Chris.R]

posted this in the weather reports thread earlier on.

"Have just been down to Crosby beach and witnessed one hell of a cold front! Had just arrived and the temperature was 14c. The waves were really amazing braking over the sea wall and flooding the promenade. Then, it started to rain and hail. It was one amazing squall line. At its hight, the hail was torrential, and the waves were braking on cars in the car park!

The wind veered from the SSW to the WNW as the front moved through.

I didn't even realise a cold front was coming but you could tell it was from the way in which it moved through. It's too hard to explain how dramatic it was!

Have just arrived back home and the temp is now 6.9c, WOW!

[Lauren]

Gone very Dark! Winds are Gusting considerably, the cats are spooked and my boiler pilot light keeps blowing out. Not much Rain here yet, just drizzle - Lauren you must be quite nearby to me?

Yes I am currently at work in maidstone, but live in rochester.

[Andy Bown]

Just in on wires from colleagues at BBC Manchester, for info - (note on radar line convection elements over this site report) - -

"What's being described as a mini tornado's hit Stockport. One woman has been taken to stepping hill hospital after a chimney stack collapsed on her. Emergency services are on the scene. Tiles are said to have blown off the roof damaging cars .. and tables and chairs have been blown up the street. Dave Ashton works in Heaton Moor and saw what happened...."

Great to see you back on here Ian.

Looking forward to your review of the Cold Front on this evening's Points West, was looking forward to your predictions for it on the lunchtime broadcast but it was Jemma forecasting and she is never as in depth as you unfortunately!

Only 4mm of rain in Warminster but was interesting to watch the NW Radar updates to see how quickly it was moving through, of more action is the temperature

having dropped from 11.7c to 9.3c in less than an hour along with rapid decrease in wind strength.

[Zenarcher]

12z GFS is showing some windy weather for Northern Scotland for Wednesday night.

[GreyCrag]

Thanks for the info fergieweather. Stockport is just 20 minutes away from me so i'll be able to do a damage assessment tomorrow morning if the emergency Services allow. Any idea what part of Stockport this damage occurred?

NWRadar taken around the time the damage occurred. No SLW were observed here, however Stockport is some 8 miles from my location so obviously anything funnel/tornadic wise wouldn't have been seen due to the topography and limited visibility.

[AlexM94]

just seen the bbc weather forecast, early warning for severe gales/storm force winds for the far north of scotland, wasnt expecting that!

[chionomaniac]

Thanks - yes, bit more time on my hands now with the F1 weather duties finished for another year!

For once we see someone who actually meant F1 and not FI!!!

[GreyCrag]

Ah Heaton Moor the damage occurred, only a mile or so away from the center of Stockport.

http://moormag.com/2011/11/tornado-in-the-heatons/

[Zenarcher]

The 12z GFS for the Saturday and Sunday storm has been yet again downgraded and pushed further north. It actually looks like the GFS has placed it in the same location as the UKMO. At the moment it looks like gales for most of Scotland now.

As for the Monday event now its been downgraded a lot more and just shows windy conditions across the UK but no storm force winds.

[kold weather]

Not referring to winds, but rain; was expecting a good squall here.. didn't seem worth the Level 1 warning by ESTOFEX

If you look at the radar it seems like you guys got away with it, the band was at its weakest point as it passed Leeds and there was a gap inbetween the two squall lines so you got away with it...

[cyclonic happiness]

There were a couple of wonderful minutes just after the squall line went through where the sun came out just as it was setting!

I grabbed one photo, but the best part was before I got to my camera, but it looked reall dramatic!

This it what I call weather!

[MP-R]

Gusty winds and light rain here. Looking forward to the havy stuff.

[cyclonic happiness]

I understand but I don't think any weather organisation will start to issue warnings based on motorbikes for wind gusts of 40-50mph. they focus on the whole picture and the likely impact on the infrastructure due to severe gales which could cause damage to buildings and uprooted trees falling on roads etc causing injury or worse.

But if an 70mph gust blew a lorry off a road and someone died, they'd think that justified.

Yet, if a biker were blown under the wheels of a lorry and died, it's not justified??? weird logic?

[knightrider]

We've had gusts of 35-40mph here pretty much all day and now we have the squally band of rain moving in within the next hour or so I suspect 55-60mph isn't out of the question. As for all this talk about the storms comming later in the week and into the weekend and early part of next week all I can say is it's shaping up to be a very active spell of weather but those 1st suggestions of sustained winds of 60mph across Southern England sound abit extreme and far fetched that would mean gusts in access of 90 or even 100mph, which would mean widespread devastation and a 1987 event all over again but I would be surprised if we see anything like that again in our lifetimes! I think Wednesday night into Thursdays storm is looking interesting for parts of Scotland with 80mph gusts in the predictions with pottencial for 50mph just about anywhere in the UK, Saturday and Sunday are looking typically autumnal and windy but nothing exceptional, early next week we could see something exceptional brushing the UK but if I was a betting man I'd say once again it's northern areas which are going to take the brunt particularly Scotland and Northern Ireland but cant see London or the south getting anything out of the ordinary. :blush:

[MP-R]

Ah - two minutes of heavy rain and squally winds and now drizzling. Was that it?

[Liam J]

GFS 12z puts N England Northwards in the firing line for severe gales tomorrow evening and night, with equally as strong winds if not stronger through the Irish as Western Scotland. Mean speeds 50-60mph, the low then deepens further and batters N Scotland with storm force winds.

[multi cellular thunderstorm]

The squall line passed through here about an hour ago but it wasn't anything special really.

Just check the Meto obs and the temp here dropped from 12.0c to 7.0c between 3pm and 4pm!

Wind direction also changed from SSW to WNW in that time.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/em/nottingham_watnall_latest_weather.html

[Lauren]

Where is the squall currently and is it weakening?

[knightrider]

You only had to look at the isorbars across the UK for todays forecast to realise that nowhere was going to see anything exceptional, I believe gusts of 70mph or so have been reported around Irish sea coasts but that's just standard for deep Atlantic low at this time of year. When gusts of 70mph are reported in London then I will start getting excited but that happens once in a blue moon! I don't think the met office have been over-hyping today's forecasts anyway but it would appear some people on here have jumped the gun!

[Lauren]

Starting to rain moderately here, but not hard, does that come later?

[GreyCrag]

Just as I feared, the clean-up is already underway in Stockport following the Tornado earlier on in the afternoon. Being on the main trunk-road into Manchester it was inevitable the council was going to clear ASAP to get things moving again.

Luckily these pics have been taken as it was getting underway.

(photostream)

https://picasaweb.google.com/116458949902470348240/TornadoInHeatonMoor?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMCzj5vr2ZDEJQ&feat=directlink#5680457334116094562