UK Weather - Autumn 2021

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Simon Culling
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Re: UK Weather - Autumn 2021

Unread post by Simon Culling »

Indeed, Orion. It is always sad to see the effects the weather can have on life and limb. Perhaps we still underestimate the power of nature at times.

The arctic air moved south as Storm Arwen moved away to the SE and into continental Europe and it has been a cold weekend over the UK with snow showers in some places. A little feature in the northerly flow ran south across the spine of England yesterday (Sun 28th Nov) giving a covering of snow right to the south coast, but it missed us in Tiverton and we only had cold rain showers!

There was a sharp frost overnight into Monday with the mercury falling to -8.7°C at Shap Fell in Cumbria over the snowfields. This is the lowest temperature in the UK so far this Autumn.

It will turn milder later today for a couple of days and then back to cooler conditions under a NW flow later in the week. Still no signs of full-on winter yet in the models.

The CET for November was 8.1°C (+1.4°C) up to the 28th and the EWR was 35mm up to the 27th, which is just 38% of the monthly average.
Simon Culling
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Re: UK Weather - Autumn 2021

Unread post by Simon Culling »

Storm Arwen gave some testing conditions to the higher ground of the north of the UK over the weekend with very strong winds and quite a bit of snow above 1000ft. This will have impacted the farming community particularly harshly, but there was an unexpected extended holiday for 60 people who ventured onto the North York Moors on Friday evening (despite the weather warnings) to see an Oasis tribute band at the country's highest elevation pub - The Tan Hill Inn which sits at over 1700ft elevation. They ended up being marooned until Monday because of snow (and felled trees and power lines) blocking the only road in and out.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-y ... e-59446663

Some farmers had to dig their sheep out of the drifts - see this report on a Staffordshire hill farm:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... m-59469862

It is much milder today, Tuesday 30th November, as the winds have shifted to the SW and the UK is being bathed in Atlantic air. Back up to 11°C here in Tiverton this morning.
Simon Culling
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Re: UK Weather - Autumn 2021

Unread post by Simon Culling »

The effects of Storm Arwen have lingered on for some in the NE of the UK. The damage to the electricity network was quite considerable in the more rural parts of E Scotland and NE England and it appears 30,000 homes have yet to be re-connected despite the damage occurring 5 days ago. Electricity lines above ground are very vulnerable to both wind damage and trees falling onto them because of the wind and more rural parts of the network in the UK are generally of this form. The snow over the weekend and into this week will not have helped the electrical contractors in their work, so a small percentage of the UK population fully understand that the red warning was justified.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59396135

There are a number of reports of large swathes of tree damage in the NE with pine forests having been particularly vulnerable. The unusual direction of the strong wind (N-NE) may also account for the large amount of damage. Here is one example:

https://twitter.com/BarnsideFarm/status ... 6104317954

Forestry England estimate that at least 100,000 trees were felled in the county of Northumberland alone.
Simon Culling
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Re: UK Weather - Autumn 2021

Unread post by Simon Culling »

The final CET for November was 7.3°C (+0.7°C) and the final EWR was 43mm, which is 47% of the monthly average. The last week of the month was quite cold and this almost countered the mild first three weeks of the month. it was notably dry.

The Met Office have produced a good summary of both November and the Autumn of 2021 in the linked document. November was dry in much of southern England with many sites reporting just 25% or less of the usual rainfall. The autumn as a whole was warmer and drier than normal, but a little on the dull side.

According to the Met Office, this was the third warmest Autumn for the UK as a whole in the national temperature series dating back to 1884 and for Northern Ireland it was the warmest on record.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/p ... rn-ireland
Simon Culling
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Re: UK Weather - Autumn 2021

Unread post by Simon Culling »

Update on the wind event on Saturday 31st October 2021. TORRO is continuing its investigation of the event, but initial findings are that there were 8 confirmed and 6 suspected tornadoes in the swath of strong winds. Some reached T3-4 on the TORRO intensity scale.

Updated map in the attached tweet.

https://twitter.com/simon_culling/statu ... 8418547730
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