Arthur?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Arthur_Harris,_1st_Baronet

Yes 60,000 homes without  power in EA and SE, our met office should have named this storm 3 days ago. But I agree naming storms hasn't really worked especially this episode. 

Down here it was not even noticeable - I heard a few gusts of wind but nothing like Eleanor or even whatever the one before that was. No noticeable debris on the roads either, and yet for some reason three trains were cancelled before I could get into London, so there must be damage in some parts. And those trains originated further south than here, so it's not just that the storm passed to the north.

I slept right through last night, although the wind woke the wife up with bits off the nearby tree hitting the bedroom windows.                           It`s left a nice V shape on my barograph chart though, with the lowest pressure at the bottom of the V at around 3.45am.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-42730984 

Yes. It's actually Torak who's escaped - I'm one of very few people who can handle him (as I bottle-fed him).

Truth be told, I'm at work but I can't concentrate on anything... to say I'm choked up would be to understate things massively.

Sorry to hear that Darren. Hope he's safely back where he should be soon.

I must say I'm surprised at the damage as I'm not that far south of there and the wind didn't seem very strong at all here.

And meanwhile it's been called Friederike by the German met office!

very sorry to hear this Retron...as you say, it must be very hard to concentrate at work knowing what has happened and the ongoing situation...

The latest is apparently they have a helicopter trying to spot him (that's how they hunt wolves in Canada, so it does work!) and they plan to shoot him with a tracking dart. It remains to be seen what happens, but as you can imagine it's rather worrisome!

I've just got in to the office after appointments this morning and saw the article on my weather news feed, I wondered immediately if it was one of yours. I hope all goes well, sincerely.

From BBC News: 

"Officers announced that the wolf, called Torak, had been safely recaptured at about 13:40."

Which cub did I get to stroke all those years ago, Darren?

Whew. Good on Thames Valley police for throwing everything they could at it, and for the vols at the wolf centre for being there to help capture him. That's the first escaped wolf in decades not to be shot. The overwhelming reaction on social media has been pro-Torak as well, which was wonderful to see - well done everyone!

And nice to see you, it was, I believe, Torak you met all that time ago. I still have the photo somewhere of you looking into the enclosure!

This is a storm I'll never, ever forget. What an adventure and - of all things - I now know to brace for a big impact in a few years' time. (Torak will be 12 in April.)

I have the photo of me stroking Torak on Facebook still 

This shows what a complete farce this storm naming system is.

The French named a low pressure for which  almost all of France it didn't affect and yet our Met Office didn't name even though parts of this country was going to feel its maximum effect.

Work that one out?!

Just saw a report about this on Sky news. Two women were interviewed, you probably know them

But the ghastly presenter Kay Burley questioned how a Wolf can ever be friendly. This woman winds me up normally by imparting her right wing political views into interviews, but I really was throwing stuff at the TV this time!

Fantastic news. I had a look on Twitter and the vast majority of messages were people saying "please don't shoot him".

And now, also from Twitter, I leave you with a lighter video. Shouldn't laugh, but...

https://twitter.com/severeweatherEU/status/954024194089549831

It was very bad here. Lots of debris and fallen trees/branches. I think it probably been the worst since the squally cold front in a deep depression in January 2007 (even worse than the gales of winter 2014). Had no problems with power to my house, though.

Surprised the UK Met Office haven't named this storm system. It shows what a complete farce this storm naming system is.

I'm surprised at that. 

As you know, I'm fairly local to you - I was woken in the early hours by a howling wind and could hear all kinds of crashing and banging outside.

In the morning I discovered a fence panel down.  Also a couple of trees were down at my kid's school. I also heard similar reports from the Bagshot area.

Some news on the Storm in Netherlands and Germany.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42731505.

Glad to see that Torak has been returned safely.

However that report states that the santuary said that the gate to the enclosure may have been left open deliberately, is that right, who working there would do such a thing??

The suggestion now is that it was a break in rather than any of the senior handlers - they're the only ones with the keys to unlock the big double gates leading directly into the enclosure. There wouldn't have been any seniors around in the early hours, either, as all the handlers are volunteers there! Those big gates are only rarely opened and only to allow maintainance (such as mowing) of the main enclosure, with the wolves safely in the holding area. That wouldn't have been going on in the early hours either.

I daresay the next time I go up there (which is next month) I'll find out more.

I think I have. The Met Office claimed today that they could not name the storm because the French Met named it first. Under the naming convention, once another National Met has named a storm, the UK Met will stick with that name (as they do for example with ex tropical hurricanes). The Met Office claims that the uncertainty around the intensity of the system meant that the probability of it exceeding the amber warning criteria was not high enough until after the French Met named the storm. Because the storm was expected to continue intensifying after it exited the UK the argument is the probability of disruptive impacts was higher in North-East France and hence the French Met were quicker to name the storm.

The French Met has now followed the UK in naming storms and is collaborating with the Spanish and Portuguese Met in selecting names. The Germans are not part of any collaboration hence they came up with their own name.

So there you have it. The storm officially went under the name David in the UK as well as in France.

There may be some logic to the above but I do find the Met’s argument rather disingenuous. They never said anything about it being called David in any public announcements. So the intended effect of the naming system (to bring the storm to the attention of the public) did not happen in this case despite the fact it clearly warranted a name. So a complete shambles in my view.

At least with ex hurricane Ophelia in the autumn the name was being used in public forecasts (mainly because it was still an official hurricane until it got quite close to the UK). Given none of us on this weather forum realised that this week’s storm was going under the name David, how was the general public supposed to be aware of this? The Met need to get a grip and provide much greater clarity and consistency if they are going to continue with this rather confusing naming system.

Thinking about it a bit more, the above still does not make sense. The Met Office say they could not name the storm. Okay but they would not have named it anyway even if the French Met had not named it, because the UK Met never issued an amber wind warning (that is another debate entirely - the amber warning limits for wind were surely exceeded but all they did was amend the yellow warning early on Thursday morning). A storm is only named if an amber warning is likely to be issued. The Met claim the amber warning limits were not exceeded (at least not for wind. But they did issue an amber warning for snow associated with the system and the storm naming criteria does take into account snow warnings. So the whole thing is totally confusing). I think they will find in post event reanalysis that the amber wind warning limits were exceeded. The Dutch issued a code red warning. The winds were not that much higher in the Netherlands than they were in East Anglia.

A poor performance from the Met Office in my view this week. As Brian mentioned before they issued a yellow warning for snow in the south on Tuesday night. All we had were a few flakes and yet that apparently warranted the same level of warning as the severe storm the following night. Absolute nonsense.