February 7, 2016
The Calm Before Storm Imogen
It's now just after 19:00 hours on Sunday February 7th 2016, and I suppose it's time to start battening down our hatches? Here's how our handy South-West England flood widget looks at present:
Here's the Magic Seaweed surf forecast for the British Isles for midnight tonight:
and here's the GFS wind gust forecast for tomorrow morning, courtesy of MeteoCiel:
Just in case you're wondering the scale is in km/h, not mph! Nonetheless I have a torch and a large supply of candles and matches handy, in part because on my pre Imogen bike ride around the infrastructure of the Haldon Hills this afternoon I couldn't help but notice this:
If you suffered a mobile telecommunications breakdown anywhere near Telegraph Hill earlier today that's probably because a tree fell across the wires carrying electricity to the telecoms mast on the Haldon ridge.
Before Storm Imogen arrived.
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On my bike ride around Great Haldon this afternoon I popped into the Forest Park Ranger's Office to enquire why some, but not all, of the park was currently closed:
Jon informed me that the whole forest would be closed from 5 PM today until 8 PM tomorrow evening, since that's when the Met Office just down the road in Exeter forecast that wind gusts over 47 mph could be expected. Tomorrow (Monday 8th) even the Ranger's office would be closed due to the potential danger to life and limb, but normal service would be resumed at 07:30 on Tuesday.
The current closure of the red bike trail and the tree trail was due to fallen trees, which in some cases had fallen across electricity cables. See above!
Assuming Storm Imogen doesn't keep me awake it's now my bedtime. There was a flash of lightning swiftly followed by a clap of thunder not so long ago!
There are currently 31 flood warnings and 74 flood alerts across South-West England: