Sleet and rain at Stansted very windy. Couple of diverts from Gatwick so far.

Wind strengthening again here. Most dramatic spell of weather IMBY since I moved here in 1997.

---

Local news mag showing our main road blocked by tree.

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/14387312.Homes_without_power_and_trees_felled_as_storm_Katie_batters_South_Essex/ 

Here are the fax charts showing the development of Katie. Something for the archives.

From the data I have seen it looks like the lowest pressure reading was around 970mb between 00z and 06z

Superb modelling by the ARPEGE model of this storm. It had the track and intensity nailed down several days ago when it was predicting a 969mb system.

http://www.weathercharts.net/noaa_ukmo_analysis/previous/PPVA89_12z_last.gif?31415

http://www.weathercharts.net/noaa_ukmo_analysis/previous/PPVA89_18z_last.gif?31415

http://www.weathercharts.net/noaa_ukmo_analysis/previous/PPVA89_00z_last.gif?31415

http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/PPVA89.TIF

As I said a couple of days ago the ARPEGE model has a good record of predicting storms of this nature coming up from the south-west. Tomasz S has posted on Twitter charts showing just how similar the shape of Katie is to the October 1987 storm. Not as intense but a very similar track and size.

https://twitter.com/Schafernaker/status/714333429349924864

Tomasz also thinks we probably did have a sting jet which is possibly what Brian experienced around 0800 this morning. Again the modelling from ARPEGE suggested this was a possibility at that time. The satellite and radar showed this nicely earlier. It was just too far north for me to experience it.

https://twitter.com/Schafernaker/status/714364303223230464

 

Sounds positively tranquil now! Still sharp gusts every now and again but the worst is definitely through, and the sun's out. Just had to rescue some errant plant pots and a sheet of tarpaulin that had broken free from four concrete blocks and had scaled an 8ft fence into the lane outside. Lots of twigs down, but amazed at how little damage there seems to be.

Have to say Arpege led the way on this one, and NMM was pretty good too, and the Met Office warnings were bang on. Had this been a regular working Monday, then London and Kent might've been under a red warning, judging by some of the reports of horrendous conditions further East as the system exits.

Hope everyone else is safe and well - there's somewhat of a comfort felt when reading reports of similar worry and weather nuttiness elsewhere.

 Perhaps Meteo France will bid for the Beeb contract. They seem to have by far the best modelling for the UK, Met Office apart.

---

Certainly was a breezy night here - first time in a while you could feel the house shaking in the stronger gusts.

I'd imagine a few trees are down around this part of the county - one of the large birch trees in the woods behind us has come down in someone's garden, and that's not particularly exposed to the main wind direction.

Other than the breeze it's actually quite a nice morning at present, with plenty of sunshine

Edit: Mate of mine has just put a pick up on FB of a large tree blocking main road between Tunbridge Wells and Pembury! 

---

Good question. I would say the Needles one is accurate. I used to live on the other side of the Needles Channel a little way inland from Keyhaven on the Hampshire coast. That part of the coast seems to be windier, perhaps because of the funneling of the winds through the Hurst Narrows? In the summer sea breezes were often stronger than say at Bournemouth so one might have say a force 4 or 5 at Hurst and 2 to 3 further west.

But last nights storm where I live now in Dorset was no more than one a few weeks ago that had no Met Office name but brought down more trees round us than this one. The SE of England seems to have experienced the strongest gusts this time.

Nick

---

Family woken in the early hours by the intensity of the rainfall - winds were light. 

---

lost some fencing, but at least the shed and garage were ok. Seems we missed the worst of it

---

Decent storm for down here but nothing memorable or noteworthy. 😏 The kind of storm (70-80mph gusts) that blows through a couple times a year.
It destroyed one of my cold frames, blew a few old twigs of some trees, and scattered loose rubbish from gardens. I've seen an image locally on Facebook of partially collapsed roof/wall in the copnor area but as of yet can't confirm this is wind damage or that it wasn't already structurally weekend. I didn't see any major branches or trees down on my journey to southsea this morning.

Wettest and windiest spell of weather here since .......er ....... earlier this month    

Edit: and joint snowiest day of the year    (joint that is with every other day ..... )

(not that it was ever expected to be anything else!)

---

lots of trees down around here a wild early hours of the morning for sure

I can see a fair covering of snow on the distant hills SW of here, Peak District area. Just sleet here.

---

It was sure blowing a Hooley out here in the early hours this morning before I got to bed, seems I missed the strongest winds though, strongest gust recorded here in Dartford is 45mph at just on 8am!

No real damage except one of the glass panels had blown out the greenhouse but was still intact thankfully & now back in it's rightful place.

---

Quite noisy outside last night in the stronger gusts, but never felt threatening so didn't lose too much sleep.

Apart from losing some empty plastic plant pots from the garden that we forgot to weight down we've no obvious damage this morning.

Just seen that the guttering and downpipe is adrift on the house opposite though

---

A real house-rattling storm last night! Maybe in the top 3 wind storms locally in the last 5 years? Not too much damage in this area, just my fence at a point which has broken before. I expect had the leaves been on the trees, the damage would have been more noticeable.

The power went out for 2-3 hours this morning as the winds picked up force again around 8am. It's been on and off all day since!

---

We have an auditory taxonomy here to help us compare winds; rushing of a fresh breeze turns into a whooshing as it approaches gale; the stronger winds whistle intermittently; beyond this there is an almost vocal roar, only had a few times in the last 20 years. Jan 1990 went to a new level- I remember the whistle becoming the roar, then changing to a veritable scream (really, it sounded like a voice, not a whistle)as the cloud cleared that day and I can still remember it.

We're quite sheltered here really, and I'm sure these kind of sounds happen much more frequently in exposed places. Last night was disturbing as the windows rattled so much. We only made it to the whistle, however.

---

I love those sounds.
The sounds from an open chimney are also amazing.

I also remember the whistle through drafty wooden doors and windows when I was a kid.

Long before double glaze and stuff.

Now that does surprise me

Discovered an optical effect caught on my time-lapse I think caused by the cirrus canopy of the approaching storm Katie. I assume it's an aircraft but if you look in the bottom left hand corner of my time-lapse, slowed down and edited, it looks like a rocket launch!

---

">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh1U6utu84I