"there should just be the one single storm naming system for the whole of Europe, even in this post-Brexit era which we are now well into."

Surrender to the frogs, never, independence is all. Suggest we start naming from X backwards just to show them!

Chris H

Warnings out for Fri - Sun going to be a bit wet, those east facing windows going to take a bit of a hammering

Slightly dreading this as I know my roof has a couple of areas where the wet will come in from that direction.

The latest Met O Fax for 6am tomorrow has notched up the intensity of the low, now centered just above the channel islands at 964mb, wow! Looks like the English channel coast is going to take the brunt in terms of wind initially.

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/18762347.storm-alex-heavy-rain-set-batter-dorset-weekend/

STORM Alex is set to bring what could be “one of the worst weekends of weather of all time in Dorset”.

Bournemouth-based weather enthusiast Dorset Snow has warned of “absolutely relentless” rain between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon.

If that comes off hats off to 'Dorset Snow' otherwise he'll have to eat his words or some of them. A brave call to stake your reputation on.

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/18762347.storm-alex-heavy-rain-set-batter-dorset-weekend/

STORM Alex is set to bring what could be “one of the worst weekends of weather of all time in Dorset”.

Bournemouth-based weather enthusiast Dorset Snow has warned of “absolutely relentless” rain between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon.

If that comes off hats off to 'Dorset Snow' otherwise he'll have to eat his words or some of them. A brave call to stake your reputation on.

It is a brave call but with the possibility of 4-5 inches of rainfall mentioned on the 1.30 bulletin, somewhere will cop out. Depends how the rainbands pivot. Some areas it could just rain all the time and Dorset appears to be in the firing line.
I would have caveated “could be one...”. Just like the forecasts use the words could, might, likely, just to cover themselves.

I hope it pivots further east; as it stands, the system is going to spin the rain band northwards over MBY on Sat/Sun and I'd much rather it didn't.

Just watched the BBC local forecast for the South East and it would appear there's a lot of green rain on the way. I'm off to contact Prof. Randy Cerveny to find out the mechanism which causes this rare meteorological phenomena.

ARPEGE has wettest weather across Central Southern England from Hampshire and Dorset and NNW towards Bristol. Totals approaching or exceeding 100mm in a few spots. Somewhat different to the Met Office view.

http://modeles7.meteociel.fr/modeles/arpege/runs/2020100112/arpege-25-114-1.png?01-17

ICON is similar although the highest totals stay near the south coast and around the Isle of Wight

http://modeles12.meteociel.fr/modeles/icon/runs/2020100112/iconeu-25-114-1.png?01-17

WRF is closer to the Met Office solution in terms of positioning but with totals over 200mm across the high ground in the south west.

http://modeles16.meteociel.fr/modeles/wrfnmm/runs/2020100112/nmm-25-96-1.png?01-16

GFS also going for the wettest weather in the SW

http://modeles2.meteociel.fr/modeles_gfs/runs/2020100112/114-777UK.GIF?01-12

Let's see which of the models turns out to be closest to what actually happens. Either way somewhere is going to see some significant flooding this weekend I think.

Storm winding up in the Bay of Biscay, showing the hook shape.

https://twitter.com/PeterGWeather/status/1311738721193033731.

(Not sure how to post Twitter feeds on TWO)

Met Office has backed away from the more intense circulation hitting the South Coast, but still windy and a lot of rain. North Western France looks like it will still see some very strong winds though.

The radar returns over NW France are a classic,

 

The radar returns over NW France are a classic,

Those from the Channel are definitely a thing of beauty this morning - though perhaps best viewed in the abstract

Those from the Channel are definitely a thing of beauty this morning - though perhaps best viewed in the abstract

Quite agree. I woke up in the middle of the night and looked out of the window but was still almost calm. A strong ENE wind now.

I see from AIS that most of the ocean liners in Weymouth bay are in the Channel maybe to avoid the risk of ending up on the beach if the winds were too much for the anchor chains. That would be a notable story if it were to happen.

20mm and counting since midnight 

 

Quite agree. I woke up in the middle of the night and looked out of the window but was still almost calm. A strong ENE wind now.

I see from AIS that most of the ocean liners in Weymouth bay are in the Channel maybe to avoid the risk of ending up on the beach if the winds were too much for the anchor chains. That would be a notable story if it were to happen.

Good point. I don’t think these winds are predicted to be as strong as the last named storm, but it’s a different issue this time with the winds from the East or South East. Before the last storm most of the cruise ships took off to ride the storm out at sea, probably for the reason you mentioned.

Just checked vesselfinder.com while typing this and a number of ships have moved away.

I'm not impressed by Alex as a named storm - yes, definitely wet and windy but no more than an Atlantic depression typically delivers around the equinox.

I'm not impressed by Alex as a named storm - yes, definitely wet and windy but no more than an Atlantic depression typically delivers around the equinox.

But this is a French named storm. It certainly was a storm in north western France.