For the wind at least they were spot on. Gusts of 100mph were predicted in the most prone/exposed locations and the highest I heard of was 99mph. As for the snow well it wasn't as widespread as it might have been but even then the forecasts I heard stressed that the whole situation was on a 'knife edge' and just minor differences in conditions will make all the difference between heavy snow and just rain. We all know this full well of course but the general public/media don't and to them its just a case of - oh they got it wrong again.

Anyhow, the main emphasis of Goretti was always the wind rather than snow, hence the red warning which was very accurate.

My thoughts are with you, as we well know in northern Scotland( north of the central belt) if the bad weather doesn’t affect Edinburgh or Glasgow, then what are we moaning about !  Social Media , and certain newspapers, completely hoodwinked people into thinking they are going to get blasted by storms or snow, to only then the next day criticise forecasters that it didn’t happen !!

If you happen to be in the area that gets pasted , it’s a very real event for you, as has happened in Cornwall, life and media move on to other subjects very quickly, whereas your left with the consequences for sometimes weeks.

The hero’s of all these major weather events often do not even get a mention, electricity repair teams should get special praise, farmers, who are often the first people to help out locally. I was in London during the famous “hurricane” . It was the most frightening  experience I have had, watching rows mature trees toppling like nine pins, and the noise was deafening , but, the next day summed up certain attitudes towards these events . I decided to walk into central London ( as nearly all public transport was cancelled) walking past an outdoor train station, the platforms were full of people waiting for a train, 100 yards outside the station , was three massive oak trees across the lines !! And yet, the people were all still standing there ! A most surreal sight indeed, I often wonder what they were thinking ?

I do hope you get your services back soon , it’s a wake up call when you loose basic services like water etc. 

Social media often gets a hard time, but I have seen up here in the north east of Scotland, the good side of it, with many people asking for help and getting it much quicker than trying to contact councils etc. They have become experts at not answering phone calls like most other service providers.  Good luck in your recovery 👍

Well said and I agree totally.

i hope things down in Cornwall are sorted quickly.

80% of trees on St Michaels Mount felled.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx4qx7ryn9o 

"It was loud but nothing happened to the house except lights flickering".

The house was an older one and fairly sheltered which makes a difference in these matters. 

Just catching up with TWO threads and yes I saw it Roger. I'll now try to make an effort to watch if I can get into Prime. Oh and DP if you see this I'm glad you got it too.

I went on a cycle ride on Saturday but nearly every road was blocked by mature trees. In the village of Praze a 500 year old pine with a huge girth lay on its side with the wall and grass still attached but at 80 degrees. Very sad to see.

I really do hope we don’t get a a repeat any time soon. My thoughts are that the abundance of dense polar air just to our north was the main catalyst to the development of the back edge of the storm where all the destruction occurred.

I believe someone on Wednesday evening pointed out that the distance between relative calm winds and destructive hurricane force winds were being modelled within 7-10 miles. Some of the models over do it ..but not this time, we really did hit the wall within a minute or so.

That interval sounds very rare indeed for an Atlantic depression and normally associated with the completion of the passage of the eye of a hurricane directly overhead and the restoration of the full cyclonic wind pattern. Worthy of a full professional analysis I would think

“The latest BBC forecast available on the BBC Weather home page as of 17:15 yesterday opens with Stav Danaos stating that the red danger to life warning has 'now expired' when in actual fact it only came into force at 16:00 and lasts until 23:00”. I’ve just been trying to find the poster who brought this up on TWO but I can’t but thanks anyway.

On the strength of that thread I wrote to the BBC the day after and I've had a reply as follows.

Dear Mr A,

Thank you for contacting us about the BBC Weather forecast 8.1.2026.

We appreciate you flagging this with us. This was due to a human error in the production process and, as soon as we realized, we took steps to rectify the mistake. We're sorry that you saw the forecast in the short window that it was up and available but can assure you that it was taken down and replaced with a correct version as soon as we noticed. Hopefully you and your daughter did manage to get the correct information about the weather warning from the BBC Weather App.

We have spoken to the staff involved and all will make sure that this doesn’t happen again in the future.

Thank you for taking the time to write in.

With best Regards