06/12/2024
Strong winds this weekend, stay safe everyone. Feel free to get in touch if your fence doesn't survive.
LATEST WEATHER UPDATE INCLUDING ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW REGARDING THE YELLOW & AMBER WEATHER WARNINGS.
Good morning,
Firstly, if looking for the daily forecast, it was released early last night in advance of the weather deteriorating as we move through Friday and the weekend, so you had advance notice.
Here is the link to it or scroll down a little:
https://www.facebook.com/100079508978900/posts/581156051211356/
OK, so you might wake this morning thinking well, what happened to the wind and rain that was forecast.
Well, it's quite simple, really
We are currently between two weather systems.
The low pressure system that brought the wind and rain yesterday into the early hours of this morning and is now over eastern and south-eastern Europe, and Storm Darragh, that's due to start knocking on our doors from late morning, early afternoon today.
Let's start with the Yellow warning.
The yellow warning covers all of England, Wales, northern Ireland, and boarders of Scotland for strong winds.
The next yellow warning comes into force from 15:00 and stays in force until 06:00 Sunday morning, which brings the risk of 40mph to 60mph inland gusts of wind.
Pulses of persistent, locally heavy rain with rain totals expected to reach between 35mm to 60mm of rainfall widely, 100mm of rainfall locally, bringing the risk of localised flooding, especially for exposed areas like moorland areas and exposed coasts and hills.
Now about the Amber weather warning.
The Amber warning comes into force from 03:00 on Saturday morning and stays in force until 23:00 Saturday evening.
It covers all of the southwest due to the concern of just how strong the winds will become around western parts of the UK.
Sustained wind speeds will be reaching 40mph to 50mph, with gusts expected to reach 60mph to 70mph, potentially 80mph plus.
These are damaging gusts of winds that bring risk to property, coastal flooding in prone areas, and driving rain, so visibility will be greatly reduced and disruption to public transport and power supply.
The strongest winds will be from later tonight and during the early hours and first thing Saturday morning before easing from the west through mid to late afternoon Saturday yet the warning stays in force until 23:00 as a precaution.
Our advice is to get done what you need to by 13:00 today, then lock yourself indoors where possible and ride out storm Darragh.
Of course this is not possible for those working and run the greatest risk commuting to and from work or those working outside, maybe your boss needs to plan so to reduce what is needing to be done so not to put you and potentially your team at risk.
After all, Christmas is just around the corner, so let's hope your company has a little Christmas cheer and allows minimum outdoor activities over the next 36 hours.... We can only hope, of course.
There are some jobs where this isn't possible, like the police, ambulance service, fire and rescue teams, and Coastguard service but let's not venture out looking to the coast, putting yourself at risk and needing once of the above services, putting them at risk at the same time because of stupidity.
Ok, so what should I do if needing to go out or if working outdoors.
Driving in these conditions can be dangerous for yourself and other road users.
If you must drive, say to attend an hospital appointment, you can do this more safely by taking the following actions;
Drive slowly to minimise the impact of wind gusts, be aware of high sided vehicles/caravans on more exposed roads, and be cautious when overtaking, and give cyclists, motorcyclists, lorries, and buses more room than usual.
Being outside in high winds makes you more vulnerable to injury. Stay indoors as much as possible and have a movie day in.
If you do go out, try not to walk, or shelter, close to buildings and trees. In advance of high winds, check for loose items outside your home and secure them and STAY AWAY from coastal paths and sea fronts. Not only will there be large waves, but there will be debris within those waves like stones and other sharp and heavy objects that all possess a risk to your safety and life.
Items include bins, garden furniture,
trampolines, tents, sheds, and fences, tie them down, or if you can bring items indoors or lock them in a shed. Do so this morning before conditions go downhill quite quickly late this afternoon.
The team are all working today, so we will try to bring further updates as and when we can.
Please be patient with us, as it's going to be a busy 36 hours, we will be tired, and there may even be spelling mistakes on posts released... You don't need to point them out..!
Our priorities will be to get the information out to you promptly, not to win the spelling and grammar of the year award..!
Take care as storm Darragh really does mean business, and we could even see a red weather warning being issued later today by the Met Office, which is the highest of warnings and means danger to life.
We will monitor throughout and, until such time, catch you all later.
Dean
The UKSWSC Team
