Disruption to services - Storm Dudley & Storm Eunice

[30907]

It would be nice if there were some recognition amongst the national media and NR that not all of us are under a red or even amber warning.

Presumably there is some nuance as to how residents are supposed to react to them, otherwise they wouldn't be different colours.

There is - from the Met Office and on the BBC and presumably other MSM.

That said, I am in Airedale, in the yellow warning area, and the wind has got up quite nastily in the last hour or so. And it was yellow warning here on Wednesday, when we had a large conifer across the line at Keighley, blocking it for nearly 24 hours - so yellow still equals some disruption, just less of it.
(Looks as though there's a speed restriction in force and planned cancellations now.).

 

[D6130]

Wind now getting pretty blustery here in Hebden Bridge....with gusts approaching gale force, I would think.

Also, unfortunately, the first reports of injuries are coming in. According to the BBC News site, a woman has serious head injuries after being struck by roof tiles in Henley-on-Thames and a man has been seriously injured by falling masonary in Waterloo Road, SE London.
Talking of which, the top part of the spire of St Thomas's Church in Wells, Somerset, has collapsed.

 

[The Planner]

Banbury looks a right mess with P-Way having lost its roof.

Video doing the rounds of it peeling off.

 

[Trainfan344]

Wind picking up a lot in East Anglia.

 

[bramling]

Its been all over mainstream news all week, how much notice do people need?

We've done onboard train announcements during the last 2 days to warn not to travel too, but I get that that would be more hit and miss.

The last notice given (apart from the shutting down of London stations) was at 4am today, so only people who left for work before then could possibly say they weren't aware it would affect them, and only in the South East as they were maybe not expecting it to be as severe as it turned out to be.

I wouldn’t say it’s been mainstream news, certainly not until yesterday evening. Most of the weather-related news coverage has been related to Storm Dudley, not the likely effects of this one.

Completely agree the info has been there for those who have sought it out, but for whatever reason is really didn’t cut through to the population - in the London area at least.

Wind picking up a lot in East Anglia.

Picked up again here in North Herts after a lull.

Meanwhile there’s a rather direct tweet on Thameslink’s social media feed in response to someone asking what arrangements are in place to get people home. The wording is along the lines of “If you chose to travel against the Do Not Travel advice then you will need to consider how to make a return journey without a train service”. Ouch!

 

[MP393]

Hit the Northern network now, with a tree on the line at Greenbank. Chester - Manchester via Alty suspended.

 

[zoneking]

GWR now suspended, will this be until end of day?

 

[jfollows]

A34 northbound M3-A272 and A40 Oxfordshire J6-J7 both closed now I think also, the latter because an overturned lorry, the former because of trees. I imagine that driving is pretty unpleasant in the area.
It's finally about as windy in Wilmslow as the storm 2 days ago was, but that's about it so far.

 

[Saint66]

EMR suspended in and out of St Pancras.

 

[ChrisC]

Up near Newark today, suns out hardly any wind at minute

It’s probably on its way now! I’m about 15 miles west of Newark and it’s suddenly got very blustery this last half hour. I think the worst of it is now expected in the next 2 hours here in Nottinghamshire. A bit later than originally predicted. As with a previous post from Sheffield the BBC is forecasting much stronger winds than the Met Office.

 

[Horizon22]

GWR now suspended, will this be until end of day?

With so many incidents and stranded trains all is on stop until some of it cleared up. I imagine it won’t be all day but severe disruption will be with an extremely reduced service right until end of day when a skeleton service does resume.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Video doing the rounds of it peeling off.

Nice! Got photos on my work phone but haven't seen the video

Latest wind speed picked up by NR on WCML really do show how location is everything with this storm.
Stoke-on-Trent 25.9
Stafford 19.7
Rugby 27.0
Hanslope 51.5
Ledburn 51.7
Hemel 30.5

Nearest to me read 36.4 so I've got it pretty good here (south of Crewe)

 

[Class 466]

I'll be surprised if any of these operators run many more trains today.

 

[Suraggu]

Chiltern not operating a service until at least 17:00.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Since my last update from Hebden Bridge, just over an hour ago, I can now report that we have heavy rain and a light-to-moderate breeze. Calder Valley still running a full service, with most trains now running to time.

A bit further down the river (Dewsbury) it was calm and sunny this morning... about an hour ago the wind picked up dramatically, as if someone had flicked a switch. Now it's raining sideways but the sun is still shining!

Just hope I can get some sort of transport back at 5pm...

 

[wobman]

Tfw reinstated services from Chester to Liverpool and Manchester Piccadilly with 50mph speed restrictions, just as the storm hits the North West. Great planning by Cardiff control.......

 

[BayPaul]

For sure. But it doesn’t look a good shout when people on a weather forum are screaming that it’s going to be bad, yet no warning comes out, and then it comes out a bit belatedly.

I’m not even thinking about setting out for work until the late afternoon.

The models, to their credit, seem to have been pretty good. But the way this has been communicated to the wider public completely lacking. Let’s hope none of the stranded trains develop into an even more serious situation that they already will be.

Well there was already an Amber warning covering all the areas that were later upgraded to red, so you can hardly say there was no warning. It was a shame that the red warning didn't go out at say 9pm, but I would expect anyone in an Amber area to check their travel on the morning, and notice the red warning. Anyone who wouldn't do this for Amber probably also wouldn't for red.

 

[londonmidland]

EMR has suspended all services in and out of St. Pancras until further notice.

 

[dosxuk]

As with a previous post from Sheffield the BBC is forecasting much stronger winds than the Met Office.

There is more than one weather forecasting model, and even slight variances will result in different outputs. BBC get their weather forecasts from MeteoGroup and have done since 2018. They now only employ a handful of trained meterologists who work solely on broadcast weather bulletins (to allow them to use local experience to tweak the provided data). The website is just the data they get from MeteoGroup (hence why it can disagree at times with the Met Office and their own television forecasts).

 

[kristiang85]

There is more than one weather forecasting model, and even slight variances will result in different outputs. BBC get their weather forecasts from MeteoGroup and have done since 2018. They now only employ a handful of trained meterologists who work solely on broadcast weather bulletins (to allow them to use local experience to tweak the provided data). The website is just the data they get from MeteoGroup (hence why it can disagree at times with the Met Office and their own television forecasts).

I generally find the BBC and the data they use very unreliable; the Met office website, on the other hand, is usually a lot more accurate.

It still beggars belief that the BBC ditched one of the world leading meterological agencies, and a British one at that, to save money.

 

[Peterthegreat]

I generally find the BBC and the data they use very unreliable; the Met office website, on the other hand, is usually a lot more accurate.

It still beggars belief that the BBC ditched one of the world leading meterological agencies, and a British one at that, to save money.

Totally agree. I now use the Met Office site for all my needs with the BBC one for a quick look.

 

[bramling]

Totally agree. I now use the Met Office site for all my needs with the BBC one for a quick look.

Yes BBC is useless.

That said, as someone who takes UK holidays, one has to look across numerous weather models and identify trends. It’s simply not possible to look at a forecast, see a sun icon at 1200 and conclude it’ll be fine at that time.

Some of the rain radar apps are much more useful for predicting whether it’s going to rain in the few hours ahead, how heavy and for how long.

 

[dgl]

Down here on Portland we've had Met Office observations of 90Mph gusts at 12:00, we might be used to it being windy but not this bad.
Buses were going to weymouth this morning but now curtailed at ferrybridge. https://www.firstbus.co.uk/wessex-d...ervice-updates/current-issues/adverse-weather
This is what chesil beach was like earlier today,

 

[miklcct]

Nice! Got photos on my work phone but haven't seen the video

Latest wind speed picked up by NR on WCML really do show how location is everything with this storm.
Stoke-on-Trent 25.9
Stafford 19.7
Rugby 27.0
Hanslope 51.5
Ledburn 51.7
Hemel 30.5

Nearest to me read 36.4 so I've got it pretty good here (south of Crewe)

What's the unit?

 

[silexa]

It is now slightly raining here!

Staffordshire now getting battered.
A38 by me is flooded. Not looking forward to getting home from work tonight

 

[D6130]

Eunice has definitely arrived in West Yorkshire....and she is being a very naughty girl indeed!

 

[175001]

Moans galore from EMR passengers on the 1449 MAN - SHF that it stops at every stop...

They should be thankful that this is even running!

Tree on the line at Stockport now. Line blocked.

 

[The exile]

It would be nice if there were some recognition amongst the national media and NR that not all of us are under a red or even amber warning.

Presumably there is some nuance as to how residents are supposed to react to them, otherwise they wouldn't be different colours.

Round here, where red and amber meet, the difference was being covered last night. Hardly blame the media for concentrating on the dramatic bits - after all, “It’s not very windy in some parts of the country” doesn’t set the pulse racing!

 

[75A]

I generally find the BBC and the data they use very unreliable; the Met office website, on the other hand, is usually a lot more accurate.

It still beggars belief that the BBC ditched one of the world leading meterological agencies, and a British one at that, to save money.

Well they do have to pay Gary Lineker

 

[coppercapped]

The problem isn’t so much for forecasting, but the way this has been communicated to the wider populace. It has caught a lot of people out. That is bound to have resulted in some avoidable damage and disruption (for example objects not being secured). Thankfully I haven’t seen any reports of injuries / loss of life thusfar, let’s hope it stays that way.

This storm has been forecast since at least last Sunday - I do not accept the premise for your statement at all.

There will always be people who complain that 'nobody told me' when the major issue is that they are unaware of what is happening around them. It's always too easy to blame 'the authorities' for not communicating effectively if things happen and some people get caught out.

It's always someone else's fault and never mine.