Southwest & Central Southern England Regional Discussion

[gottolovethisweather]

Just to warn any one of the Southern Coasts, Winds are now starting to show there hand. I haven't got any figures at the moment due to the intermittent power cuts I am now seeing!

My Weather station:

Temp 11.7c

Rainfall (to 12am) 37.8mm

Current wind 42mph from the SW

Highest Gust at 01.50 59mph!

SM

Just to confirm your suspicions the coastal regions have indeed experienced several gusts recently in the 60s range. All figures quoted from weather online.

Hopefully peaking though, within the next hour or so for this region.

[Dean E]

Just to confirm your suspicions the coastal regions have indeed experienced several gusts recently in the 60s range. All figures quoted from weather online.

Hopefully peaking though, within the next hour or so for this region.

Yeah, can also confirm that i've just had a gust of 63mph in the last 5 minutes... a medium sized silver birch in my neighbors garden was just blow over by that gust!

Luckily it landed in open grass!

SM

[andy_leics22]

Hey guys, just wondering how bad it is with the floods down Bristol/Swindon/Wiltshire way? My Girlfriend is down there for the Weekend staying with some friends and will be driving back tomorrow afternoon. Hoping that she gets back to Leicester safely!

[Deep Channel low]

Dawlish looking very bad;

http://www.thisisexe...tail/story.html

Need sleep now. Take care all.

Went down to have a look at 12ish, road closed, water flodding right up over the road and flowing through both sides of the viaduct. some of the shops are flooded, luckly it stopped just short of the amusments. The Black swans seem to have legged it!

[stevofunnelcl]

had a quick listen to radio devon at 6am

one death in Exeter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20483459

still reporting some main roads still closed this morning

[Polar Bear]

heart has a useful link to the traffic data so you can check the state of roads and pt..

http://www.heart.co.uk/bristol/news/traffic-and-travel/

[Coast]

Dozens of properties were flooded as heavy rain lashed Cornwall.

At the height of the downpour, four severe flood warnings were in place in Polperro, Helston, Perranporth and Lostwithiel.

Special rest centres were set up and more than 200 council staff were ready to help those affected by flooding. Among the worst hit places were Millbrook, where 40 properties were flooded and Mevagissey, where 25 buildings were affected.Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service had taken more than 350 calls since Saturday morning, in what was described as one of its busiest days in the last 50 years. Fire and rescue pumps were sent to Perranporth to help prevent further flooding after the river broke its banks.

Reports suggested Millbrook was under 5ft (1.5m) of water and BBC reporter Alison Johns, who lives in the village, said 40 houses were evacuated. She said torrents of muddy water had been cascading down the road into the village and people's homes. Ms Johns said the village's sluice gates had been opened, allowing water levels to subside. Alan Crockford, a pub landlord in Polperro, said there had been warnings but "nobody knew it would get this bad". He said: "I was actually in my house and I heard a roar, and just looked outside the window and that was the first bit of water that just, just came down the hill, like a river running straight down the road. "We were given warnings from Floodline, and they just said like to take care, we were never given any firm warning that you had to evacuate and no one knew to expect it this bad."

David Owens, from Cornwall Council, said that despite earlier fears, the river had not burst its banks in Lostwithiel. The rest centres set up across Cornwall were stood down at about 02:30 GMT as it was reported water levels were starting to recede

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-20483613

[Lyn-M]

It would appear that we got off lightly here. 33mm in last 24 hours, garden is not soggy and the roads are OKish. Waiting for OH to come back to find out what's flooded around Yetminster/Chetnole area. Off to look at the upper Yeo in a while.

[Coast]

The sad side of the weather:

Woman killed by falling tree as storms sweep across Britain

A woman has died and two others were seriously injured after a tree fell on them as floods and high winds battered the South West. The three were injured when a large spruce tree collapsed on to Western Way in Exeter at 11.50pm. The woman was trapped under the tree and taken to hospital where she later died, Devon and Cornwall Police said.

People were forced to flee their homes last night as flood water and torrential rain caused "serious threats to life" in villages in Cornwall. Special rest centres were set up in the worst-hit villages, though Cornwall Council said these were all later stood down as people returned home or went elsewhere as flood threats stabilised. Severe flood warnings - the highest alert possible - have been issued by the Environment Agency (EA) for Lostwithiel, Helston, Polperro and Perranporth in Cornwall, where rivers threatening to burst their banks. More than 150 flood warnings were also in place across the country, and 222 flood alerts, the majority in the South West.

Roads have also been closed across the region as highways became impassable because of rain and debris. The M5 was shut between junction 25 and 26, Devon and Cornwall Police said. Emergency services, rescue crews and EA bosses worked throughout the night to help stricken communities and spread messages of safety to people following four days of uninterrupted rainfall. More than 230 staff from Cornwall Council were out working across the county to help those hit by severe weather and flooding, and Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service has taken more than 350 calls since yesterday morning, the council said.Fire and rescue pumps were sent to Perranporth to help prevent further flooding after the river broke its banks.

It was reported that people were left stranded in their homes in Newlyn in Cornwall, while roads in Bovey Tracey in Devon were turned into rivers as water poured down them. The village of Millbrook was reportedly under 5ft of water and BBC reporter Alison Johns, who lives in the village, said 40 houses were evacuated last night. She said told the BBC that torrents of muddy water had been cascading down the road all yesterday afternoon, into the village and people's homes. Ms Johns said the village's sluice gates had been opened and water was transferred into a gulley, allowing water levels to subside.

Devon and Cornwall Assistant Chief Constable Sharon Taylor, who is co-ordinating the emergency responses throughout the night, told the BBC the situation was beginning to stabilise in Plymouth and Cornwall. She said Devon was being buffeted by winds of up to 60mph and between 40mm and 60mm of rain. Ms Taylor said: "Cornwall was hit in several places and we did have to have some partial evacuation and move people to recovery centres, but fortunately we have been able to move them all back, with the exception of a couple of elderly and vulnerable people who are being looked after overnight."

She warned people not to travel today unless absolutely necessary, saying: "We have particularly found that people are still trying to get home and make their way to their properties, but of course some of this water is now contaminated with sewage, and of course that could cause people health problems if they continue to ignore the advice." Ms Taylor said the M5 was closed southbound between junctions 25 and 26, and that there are major problems due to flooding on the A38.

Inspector Andrew Webber of Devon and Cornwall Police said the woman who died was 21 and had been living in a small tent sheltered against the wall at the roadside when the tree fell on it, and that she died almost immediately. Mr Webber told Sky News: "It was a very large oak tree that had been there for very many years. "Obviously we've had lots of heavy weather, it's been raining an awful lot, and the tree for whatever reason came down. "It's taken a wall with it when it came down and then on top of that the tent was underneath and the tree has fallen onto the tent. "There are two males involved with minor injuries and obviously a poor lady of 21 who received fatal injuries at the time." He said officers were on the scene almost immediately, but there was very little that could be done for the woman and that her injuries were fatal "almost instantaneously".

Mr Webber said that while towns and villages across the region had been cut off, most of the flood water was receding. He warned people to take extreme care because of standing water on roads and low-lying flood waters. He said that the heavy weather had now cleared Devon and Cornwall, and that emergency services didn't expect any further serious weather for the next 12 hours. Mr Webber said Devon and Cornwall Police had been "really stretched" and they had had to keep staff on to deal with the situation, as had the other emergency services.

There were also reports of properties being flooded in Kennford, in Devon, while the BBC said Exmouth in Devon was cut off after the A376 was closed by police. The RNLI's South West flood rescue team was last night called to assist the emergency services in Exeter, and was put on standby to respond to Helston and Polperro. National Rail said the severe weather had caused a number of disruptions to services across the region. Trains were cancelled between Exeter St Davids and Yeovil Junction because of a landslip at Honiton and flooding near Axminster in Devon, and replacement buses were cancelled because of severe flooding on local roads. The route is expected to reopen tomorrow, subject to no further damage.

A landslip near Dawlish has also caused delays of up to an hour on rail services between Newton Abbot and Exeter St Davids, National Rail said. David Owens, duty director for Cornwall Council, earlier told the BBC that the rest centres were all stood down after residents had left. He said: "We did have a couple of residents in Mevagissey where we had some 25 properties flooded. We didn't have any attendance in Millbrook where we had approximately 40 properties flooded. Those situations are really improving." Mr Owens said there had been more than 400 staff from the council, police, fire services and the Environment Agency working during the night, and numbers were reduced as weather began to clear from the west.

Ten people were evacuated from the tiny community of Portholland near Mevagissey overnight after a landslip towards the east of the coastal village. Devon and Cornwall Police said part of the cliff behind five houses had given way due to the weather. As a result, 10 people were evacuated and put up overnight in a local hotel. In Plymouth, Devon, about 60 people were evacuated due to safety concerns in a dozen locations while there were numerous reports of people being stuck in their cars as some motorists attempted to drive through flooded roads. Residents of a nursing home at Cullompton, Devon, were evacuated as a precaution due to water levels.

Police worked across the county to help people in distress - and even assisted the local wildlife. Officers rescued a number of young ducks being raised in a caged area on a river in the centre of Dawlish, cutting the cage open with bolt cutters to stop them drowning in the rising water.

Environment Minister Richard Benyon told BBC Breakfast that environmental teams had been working around the clock in recent days to ensure river courses and water ways were not blocked. He said: "We recognise that while somewhere over 400 homes have been flooded, we have actually managed to protect over 24,000 homes by recently-constructed flood defences, and so that is, if you like, the silver lining to this cloud." Mr Benyon encouraged people to sign up to the Environment Agency's free flood warnings, which would give them time to react to more rain. He praised the work of the various agencies that had dealt with the recent flooding and said localised management of flood situations by local authorities, emergency services and the Environment Agency appeared to be working. Mr Benyon told the BBC: "They will have the local resilience policies in place and my understanding is that it has worked pretty well. "Thus far the system works, but we want to get people back in their homes as quickly as possible. "This (flooding) is a big issue, and it has been a big issue for a number of years, about how quickly we can get those properties back in business and back at home if they are someone's home." He also said he wanted to protect businesses as well as homes, highlighting the plight of farmers on the Somerset Levels whose land has been used to hold flood water.

Warwickshire Fire & Rescue received more than 45 calls to flooding incidents between midnight and 6am. These included cars marooned on roads in flood water and flooded properties. Seven people were rescued from cars marooned in flood water, the fire service said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/woman-killed-by-falling-tree-as-storms-sweep-across-britain-8348584.html

[Cakie]

Very sad to here of a fatality and the other two injured girls. Glad I chose to stay home and not go out to celebrate a friends birthday

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120722.aspx?stationId=3233

Local river went over previous high according to the Environment Agency

I really hope we don't get too much rain later or it will be more flooding and landslides. I am also worried about the stability of some of the trees around here due to the saturation of the ground.

[ARTDEMOLE]

Just had a sleet shower here.. Met office have wind warnings at the moment and of yet more heavy rain for this afternoon..Shall be glad when dry weather reache this way on Tueseday...6c. Cloudy but the sun is out.SSW wind 5mph...

[lfcdude]

Malmesbury town centre is flooded, https://twitter.com/BBCWiltshire pictures are on there

[BARRY]

we had a house at the top of the village flooded out last night, as a result of run off water and red Devon mud 3 fire engines were pumping them out,every body is ok.

[littlemissy]

mORE rain on its way but not as heavy .I don't think it matters, one drop is too much at the moment.Hope people on here are safe.So sad that a young lady has lost her life.Or anyone come to that.

Take care everyone.

Edited November 25, 2012 by littlemissy

[fUnKy]

Very sad hearing about these girls. Goes to show mother nature can be very cruel. Everyone take care.

[Coast]

I really hope we don't get too much rain later or it will be more flooding and landslides. I am also worried about the stability of some of the trees around here due to the saturation of the ground.

Good luck down there Cakie!

[quantock girl]

I was working last night in Porlock. A39 closed from 10pm, landslides, water bubbling up through tarmac, roads awash - it was terrible. We had a 4x4 so pushed on through and the amount of 'normal' cars that followed us was unbelievable.

Got to my friend's house and I was not going to get home using my little car so called Hub and he came out to fetch me in the tractor! Waist deep water at stretches on the A39, cars had tried to get through (????) and now stuck, Williton was just water then huge landslides in the lanes towards home, awful. Parked in a field and walked the rest of the way home.

I have never seen anything like this before, it was horrendous and in a strange way mesmerising to see what nature can actually throw at us in such a short space of time.

[AWD]

Happily a clear sunny morning here now.

Have yet to venture out, lots of traffic about which is unusual for a Sunday morning here, so looks like there could be some problems still.

[Mesoscale]

Not as windy as thursday around here, not sure if it was because the wind was coming from a different direction maybe the buildings around me made it less potent.

Watts park in Southampton was pretty flooded last night the grass areas almost looked like a marshy lake.

[AWD]

Over 100 flood warnings across the SW currently.

Wow!

[Nights King]

Has anyone noticed their local 7 day forecast is picking up a snow risk towards thur-saturday?

Long way off but its nice to see colder outlook is coming into range now

[AWD]

Has anyone noticed their local 7 day forecast is picking up a snow risk towards thur-saturday?

Long way off but its nice to see colder outlook is coming into range now

Is that from the Meto or another weather organisation?

I want to see. lol. :p

[gottolovethisweather]

Has anyone noticed their local 7 day forecast is picking up a snow risk towards thur-saturday?

Long way off but its nice to see colder outlook is coming into range now

It's a definite trend now but as we all know, picking up the specifics of where it goes, will it be cold enough (uppers and AT), timing etc. are all questions that cannot be answered right now.

I am loving the thrill of the chase, though.

Tak care all.

Edited November 25, 2012 by gottolovethisweather

[Nights King]

Is that from the Meto or another weather organisation?

I want to see. lol.

Thats from netweather 7 days lol

Meo just have very cold and cloudy for end of week.

[AWD]

Thats from netweather 7 days lol

Meo just have very cold and cloudy for end of week.

Bah, I have rain & sleet next weekend on mine.

Think they are done on the raw GFS output so lets hope the next GFS run shows 10ft blizzards for the SW. lol. :p