New wind record?

[GarethC]

Hit 22GW last night according to iamkate.

[Mart]

A tad windy in Wales atm, just seen two cars spin out on the M4, 5mins apart. Lucky for us (not them) travelling in the other direction.

Had two national alerts go off on the phones, very scary, thought Russia had attacked.

[Moxi]

With you all the way on the second statement Mart !

Moxi

[Marcus]

Yes, definitely a bit wild out west - not sure why we needed two alerts though?!

[Moxi]

Chapel Curig recorded 93mph overnight and was routinely over 90mph apparently. They alway seem to have the most snow rain wind etc oddly enough though never sunshine

Moxi

[Mart]

With you all the way on the second statement Mart !

Moxi

Good idea though, certainly brings it home how serious things were.

Wifey and I were safely locked up at home, but 6pm a very good friend rang for advice on what to do, as he'd hit a pothole in his Tesla Y and blown the tyre. He'd stupidly changed bank account deals, and not realised he'd lost breakdown cover. So he was stuck, no local rescues could get to him.

So I said I had a space saver that would fit, and would get to him. Wifey knew I was shattered (many thanks to long covid) and was worried about me being out alone, so she drove, and we set off with wheel. tools, torches, tarps etc.

5 mins in, the first alert goes off as we reach the M4. Lucky for us, another friend had offered help, and was able to meet us at the services half way, with a 2tn jack, and a much healthier and fitter body, so he was able to take over.

After a pleasant dinner at Subway in the services, we headed home, when the second alert went off, and cars started spinning. There was even a rolling road block (again on the other side of the M4) with one police car controlling traffic, then an ambulance presumably heading for spin 1. Spin 2 was a few minutes later, and quite scary to suddenly see rear red lights strobing across the road, then they went across the hard shoulder and partially up the bank before stopping. Other vehicles hit hazards and were pulling over to help.

I think the problem was that the rain was varying, and not too bad most of the time. So people who hadn't seen 'bad things', were getting caught out by standing water, and winds varying from all directions.

I was shocked how much the Y was being buffetted, given it has low weight distribution, and is ~2tn.

Friend updated us with a photo of his car screen after fitting the space saver (135mm v's the 255mm the car has). It was lit up light a Xmas tree with warnings, low tyre pressure (no presssure monitors), low regen, no ABS, reduced stability control and more. Not fun to drive but it got him out of the storm and home ....... slowly.

Totally appreciate we were also idiots going out, but had to wonder at the amount of traffic given all the warnings before and during the storm. Really not sensible being out in that.

[Bugtownboy]

Don’t know what’s going on with the alerts. I had one at 19:00 as did Mrs BtB.

She then had a second at 22:00 and then, annoyingly, at 05:00

DD had it worse - went to the Cinema (Taunton) and everybody’s phone went off at 19:00 - fair enough.

But then all of the phones kept repeating the warning all throughout the film

[spread-tee]

Well done Mart, you win the "good neighbour of the year" award, a wheelie bin blown through your front garden, Hassar!

Desp

[Mart]

Well done Mart, you win the "good neighbour of the year" award, a wheelie bin blown through your front garden, Hassar!

Desp

LOL, don't mention wheelie bins blowing .... too soon mate, too soon.

When we bought our new Tesla model 3 in 2020, a week later a storm blew, and our wheelie bin travelled across our front garden and parked next to the car, then the lid flapped open and smacked the front wing half a dozen times. I've since bolted some brackets to the wall, and fitted some bungee cords to reduce the excitement.

Just spoken to my sister, and she's sent a pick of the hay bin, and food trays in the middle of their field, where the storm shelter for their alpaca's should be. They found it in the neighbouring farm, and she's told me she doesn't think the 'hurricane screws' they used to fix it into the ground have lived up to their name. But they did gain a new stable shed roof, which landed in their paddock, from another neighbouring small holding.


Oh Desp, in unrelated news, we have new neighbours, and they wanted to fit a wood burner, so needed to do work to the chimney. Remember our chimney with all the weeds growing through that you warned me not to play with as it would be a much harder job than I realised? So there is scaffolding up, and the guys have found it's in very bad shape, so will need to take 4 or 5 layers down, and re-build. You were spot-on.

Well last week they promised they would start first thing saturday morning, but still no sign of them today, how bloody typical.

[AE-NMidlands]

Well last week they promised they would start first thing saturday morning, but still no sign of them today, how bloody typical.

I guess that was a joke... there's hardly anywhere in the country I would want to be either erecting scaffolding or working up it today!
Maybe the chimney will come down by itself and save them some work?
(We took down 2 Victorian chimneys (after having the house scaffolded) and I was amazed that it was just gravity holding them together! I suppose they stayed up because the mortar was a perfect fit in all the bricks even if there was no adhesion any more!)