Wind pepped up again here, and veered to more of a straight southerly.

A number of places in Cumbria saw around 7 inches of rain in 24 hours with the wettest being Honister pass with 178mm falling up to 6pm.

Needles IOW with top gust of 97mph which was something of an anomaly with the rest of the region. I think the cliffs deflect some of the wind energy increasing it very locally - like standing next to a high wall facing the wind and the wind always stronger then a few meters away in the open.

10 mins ago, the dog was at her favourite spot - sat on the window ledge 'keeping guard' and she suddenly erupted in barks, before legging it out of the front room and up the stairs, barking in a mix of fear and aggression (she's a Cavalier King Charles - Bichon cross and soft as me arse). She came to a halt at the top of the stairs, but continued barking.

Wondering what had spooked her, I looked out the front curtains and, pirouetting in the wind in our front garden, was one of those huge bags you get a tonne of sand delivered in.

Relatively speaking yes but it was still very blowy

The top gust here at Kew was 50mph compared to 56mph in the last big storm in December 2013 and IIRC over 70mph in 1990

The 20 seconds of squall iine cloudburst at 4:00PM was impressive though !

The wind's as strong as ever here, blowing a proper hoolie. The longevity of this storm is impressive. 

There are still MetO wind warnings for the whole of the south coast today with detailed forecasts for gusts in mid-40s mph.

Yesterday had to rush into back garden. Even though trampoline is upside down so wind can't get under, it was still trying to fly over shed. Just put some heavy objects on it and that seemed to do the job. Think I will leave it like it until after the winter when it be less likely to be really strong winds. 

There were some gusts into the 40s as I came into work over the (re-opened) Sheppey Crossing this morning - it was quite hairy, actually, with gusts causing my car to instantly move sideways several inches! I'm hoping it stays open, though, as otherwise I'll be in a hotel tonight (I'm not sitting in 2-hour traffic jams, as those heading to the Isle had to endure yesterday).

I'm not convinced that was anything like severe enough to justify the cancellation of all those sporting events.

We're getting some strong winds here at the moment, can't say how fast it's moving as batteries are flat in my station, the wind is strong enough though to bring down the rest of the damaged tree behind our garden, just completely snapped about 5ft from the ground, the tree's diameter is about 20" thick so a pretty big trunk to just snap. Winds dropped now and the sun is out, wonderful weather.

Whilst it may not have been too bad in central London yesterday I would say the damage around here justified the warnings. Plenty of trees in the locality were toppled which is unusual for this time of the year. I also had a chat with the roofers who came to fix the damage to our house this morning. Their schedule was full for the next few days! 

Other Home Counties we’re also badly affected & I know Wiltshire suffered lots of fallen trees & power cuts so yes the amber warning was justified. I guess we were lucky to escape here in London......

Indeed. This from St Albans.

Our power went off yesterday shortly after a 60mph gust at 10.30am and didn't come back on until the evening. The engineers deserved a medal - I could barely stand up outside for much of the day, let alone work up poles.

The wind got a LOT stronger by around 12.30pm but with no power, I don't know what the max was - I would guess 70 to 80mph, which would make it into or close to the top five of storms at my house in the last 25 years. I know it wasn't 90mph as our neighbour's clay pantiles come off at that speed (witnessed twice in the last 25 years).

We've had a 55mph gust this morning. There's also a lot of tidal flooding in Suffolk.