Storm Eunice

 

So this Friday, 18th February, saw Storm Eunice hit the UK with varying degrees of ferocity.

The Met Office issued weather warnings pretty much across most of the UK for the day but in particular were two rare red warnings across the South West and South East for extreme winds.

I guess I battened down the hatches as much as one can in these sorts of situations, took the rotary washing line down and laid it in the yard, moved a pot of Bluebell bulbs to the safety of the yard, put a couple of bungee cords around the topiary balls hanging on the back of the house thus tethering them to the downpipes to prevent too much swaying about. They are already cable tied to the brackets to stop them inadvertently blowing away which is what happened to one of them last time we had fierce winds!

And then it was simply a case of staying indoors with the local radio on and hoping to avoid any damage.

My fence is a new metal variety designed to withstand winds up to 130mph so less worried about that, more worried about the old shed perched on top of the garage - fortunately it's heavier than it looks and has been there for the duration and at least for now looks like hanging in a bit longer! Although I did have to prop the door shut with a piece of paving slab as the rotten wood at the bottom of the door means one hinge is now loose!

The picture above shows the things I did see from the safety of the bedroom windows - a piece of blue plastic sheeting which has wrapped itself up in the telephone wires, a neighbours gazebo which has lost some panes from the roof and an errant trampoline which had escaped from a garden up at Horsted Park!

Not long after taking these snaps with the long lens the trampoline had moved on, nowhere to be seen, from my viewpoint at least.

Glad I took them if only for a record of the day's impact. I think we were lucky around here although I've yet to go for a walk around. London and the O2 suffered massive roof damage, lots of falling trees caused damage and injury, the Isle of Wight clocked wind speeds of 122mph which is a new record for the UK. Roofs were damaged, some blew away and there were power cuts everywhere. The odd lorry ended up falling over and skidding along the road. Chaos reigned I think it is safe to say.

In the morning some hardy swimmers were taking their daily dip down at Dover - not quite sure that was sensible in spite of their assurances that they know the sea... That's what they all say until they need rescuing. Likewise a group of photographers lined up against a seawall trying to get that perfect storm image... Again an incredibly stupid thing to do given the force with which the waves can suddenly crash over the wall - you could be swept into the sea before you even saw it coming. Especially when the general advice from all sources was to stay indoors wherever possible. Indeed even work suggested that people work from home if possible, something most have been doing for months anyway, fortunately for me I don't work Fridays anymore so watched the storm from the safety of my living room. Several of our other sites were closed entirely, those on the western side of the country.

Eunice was likened to the great storm of 1987 - now that one did cause several felled trees on the estate. A storm we slept through having been assured by the now infamous quote from Michael Fish that there was no hurricane storm due. Talk about famous last words... I don't think the Met Office have ever lived that down ;-) Now they seem to err on the side of caution and issue warnings well in advance, although our amber warning didn't turn red until the wee hours of the morning which probably caught quite a few businesses out with regards to informing their employees of the need to come in - or not as the case may be. 

Let's hope that's the last of the dodgy storms for the time being, heading out of February and into March we should hopefully see some improvement in the weather although I always remember a hanky I had as a child with the saying "March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers" printed on it - so I guess we're not quite out of the woods just yet!