Storm on

Take care Sheal and anyone that is in a red alert area - just watching the news on Somerset not looking good there, those poor people. We are so lucky this side of the country.

 

Thanks all for your concern. Well, the island escaped with little damage this time. I was in Douglas this evening and the promenade was just about to be opened up after all the debris had been cleared.

 

The power in that picture is awesome Sheal. Mother Nature's having a right hissy fit this year. Next Wednesday's low doesn't look very nice either,
Jenny

 

We should be getting used to it now Jenny! Let's hope we have a good summer to make up for it.

 

I've just caught a bit of a programme on telly about storms in the UK, and how some people died and others came close to being killed.

I don't mean to sound callous, but it seems to me that in most of the cases (on this programme at least) where someone died or was nearly killed, it was because that person made what I'd consider to be very daft decisions. For example one poor chap whose car died because of water getting into the electrics in the engine bay, chose to phone his wife to tell her he was going to walk the last bit. He never made it home. It seems to me that if there is enough fast moving water to kill the car, I'm not going to take my chances with it unless I can clearly see a safe spot away from the car, or it looks like doom if I stay put. My first phone call would be to 999. In another one, despite frozen conditions, someone chose to take a shortcut over high exposed ground on a road that had a several hundred foot drop just beyond the verge. He lost control on ice, and even when stopped, every time he let go of the brake pedal the car slipped closer to the edge. Personally I wouldn't have gone over that road in those weather conditions.

All this gets me to thinking, I wonder if it would make sense to make it a standard part of kids' schooling to learn about the very real threats posed by unusual weather conditions. You can't really blame people for not knowing what to do. I've only made it this far through life because for some reason I've always had inexplicably good luck after making some daft decisions of my own. I was once nearly a statistic after hitting black ice on a bend in the road in the Peak District. It was 10'C when it happened, so as far as I was concerned there was no risk of ice. I'd overlooked the fact that it takes hours for ice to melt. I remember being behind an old lady driver who was driving a bit too slow for my liking. I was going to overtake. I had plenty of opportunity to do so, yet for some reason I decided not too. I genuinely believe that doing 40mph because I was stuck behind a slow driver, instead of doing 60mph like I wanted to, made the difference between a massive, scary S shaped skid on ice vs all of the above plus joining all the other wrecked cars that littered the bank side. That's when I learned the risks of black ice. I wasn't taught any of that at school or in my driving lessons. Perhaps if people were taught about such risks, there'd be less tragedy when unusual weather happens.

 

Gulp... check out the weather we have coming, in particular, Friday

http://www.weatherbadger.com/viewer.php?area=uk&wxcht=exp_wind

 

Looks very colourful.

 

I find that the charts on weatherbadger change nearer the event, next Tuesday was looking really bad a few days ago, now the big low has disappeared.

 

Anybody seen this site earth.nullschool.net

 

@Sheal - it looks bad for tomorrow on the IOW. Will be thinking of you,
Jenny

 

It just illustrates how we're getting battered by the weather!

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-18.18,44.51,435

 

When did Sheal move in with Aesculus then Jen?