St Jude's Day

[David Nicholson]

For those of you outside of the UK it is anticipated that we shall be having a hurricane (or the remains of one) in the next twelve hours:-

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/st-judes-day-storm-worst-weather-since-the-great-storm-of-1987-as-uk-braces-for-hurricanestrength-winds-and-torrential-downpours-8901530.html

A storm is speeding it's way over the Atlantic Ocean and should hit South Western England later tonight before spreading in a kind of north easterly direction to include the midlands and later eastern England.

The last "great storm" here was in 1987 when an esteemed weather forecaster of the time denied it was going to happen!



It's been fairly windy all day with regular heavy showers and right at this minute it's pouring down outside and not particularly windy (a bad sign I fear!) I spent the afternoon "battening down the hatches"; making sure the greenhouse top vents were closed; the piles of pots I've been going to wash and put away for many a week are not going to blow into all the gardens in the road, and some of my seed pots and the frame that contains them didn't finish up in Cornwall.

My personal view is that this storm will be (for the UK) a bit of a belter and will be at it's worst here in the early hours until breakfast time, so all the best to those of you who get it later.

[johnralphcarpenter]

Michael Fish retired from presenting the national weather forcast years ago,but still occasionally presents the local forcast for the BBC in the South-East. I slept through the Great Storm of 1987; first I know of it was my wife shaking me awake and saying "The power's off - do something about it!"

[David Nicholson]

....................................... I slept through the Great Storm of 1987; first I know of it was my wife shaking me awake and saying "The power's off - do something about it!"

I was speaking at an educational conference in Gloucestershire and went to bed considerably well fortified with conference "bon-homie", missed breakfast and slept through the whole damn thing!

[Gerry Webster]

At the moment it's ominously quiet  here.

In 1987 I was woken up briefly  by the bed shaking but immediately went back to sleep until morning.

[Margaret]

Our roof blew off in 1987 but I'm not so worried about that now, but very worried about the greenhouses on a very exposed allotment site which floods!

[David Nicholson]

Morning. Over the worst here apparently and left with blustery, heavy showers. According to local news usual reports of flooding in some areas, trees down etc. We went to bed around 2230 last night and it was beginning to blow strongly and raining heavily but both of us slept through it all. Survey of the garden this morning, conducted by the "stick your head out of the window" method suggests all is well in the garden.

[Gerry Webster]

Apart from a short period of very heavy rain around 23.00 nothing much happened here - slept peacefully. Certainly not comparable to '87.

[johnralphcarpenter]

The worst of the storm passed over here around 6AM. Woken briefly by some howling gusts of wind. Power went out and was not restored until early afternoon. Some trees down locally but nothing like '87. Minimal damage to garden but the Dahlias took a beating.

[art600]

Not so lucky here.

I had a 60ft Ash in the garden yesterday.  Today it has split in two.

Fortunately, I have a large wide garden and the part that split off fell down and across the garden.  The leaves on the outer branches missed my bulb house by mm.

My niece's husband is a tree surgeon and he has advised that the remainder of the tree needs to be removed.  Bad news is that as no damage was caused to buildings my insurance policy does not cover this.

The tree straddles the boundary with my neighbour.  When he returns I will discuss what to do - his insurance might cover it.  He has two strapping sons and together with my nephew  they can probably take the tree down.

Probably enough wood to meet the whole road's wood burning stove requirements for a year.

Will post some pictures when I have worked out how to - disaster with PC last week means can no longer use the easy method as previously employed.

[Margaret]

At home a couple of late flowering salvias were broken by a fallen sycamore branch. Nothing too serious for us but, like Arthur's experience my neighbour lost a huge limb from a mature ash which smashed another neighbour's wall and newly 'landscaped' garden.  The builders just finished on Friday.  I hope that the tree surgeon doesn't want to take down what remains of this tree.

The greenhouses on the plot were fine thank goodness.

[Neil]

And this is what a piece of hoarding does to a car when its windy and you drive over it, and then the wind does the rest.

[art600]

Here are the photos that show the extent of the damage.

The four photos show the sight that greeted me on Monday morning.

[art600]

On Tuesday I set to work with the help of my nephew to remove the branches.

Photos show the pile of large branches and logs, plus some smaller branches that I am now shredding.

My niece's husband, the tree surgeon, is coming Saturday week to remove the rest of the tree.  He has assured me that it will not blow down in the meantime.

The last photo shows the tree with sun - looks good until you really examine it when the split can clearly be seen.