I've just read on the BBC Sport website that Stranraer's Scottish League One match at home to Raith Rovers was abandoned because of a waterlogged pitch with Storm Brian being blamed for that. I have seen countless matches being postponed because of waterlogged pitches, but this usually means that the game won't even start as a result of the pitch being deemed as unplayable as a result of an inspection which takes place at some point in time before the match is due to kick off.

On this occasion, Stranraer's home match against Raith Rovers did get underway and so, the pitch would probably have been perfectly playable at that time when the match started. Indeed, there was even a goal scored by each side during the period of time when that match was being played and so, the score was level at 1-1 at the point in time when the match was abandoned. Without knowing what actually happened, this appears to be a case where torrential rain set in as that match was being played. Stranraer is of course, part of SW Scotland which has been getting quite a lot of rain recently and so, it probably wouldn't have taken much for that pitch to become waterlogged.

That indeed, was what probably happened as a result of that torrential rain which was falling with the result that the referee would then have been left with no choice, other than to abandon the game. This shows that whilst Storm Brian has been a complete non-event here in Edinburgh, that obviously hasn't been the case everywhere as the event which I have just described above is just one example of the effects of that in Scotland (no surprise there though, since it is Ireland that has been most badly hit by Storm Brian and of course, Stranraer is closer to Northern Ireland than anywhere else in Scotland).

Watching the football last night, I'd say the Blackburn game was not too far off being abandoned too. Pretty wet conditions there judging by the highlights on the Football League show on Channel 5.

70mph gusts today and heavy rain. Shouldn't we have a named storm?

70mph gusts today and heavy rain. Shouldn't we have a named storm?

My thoughts exactly. The wind here is worse than any of the previous two named storms this autumn.

Isn't it strange as well that we get a weather system such as today which causes all sorts of problems with flooding etc. (we haven't been as badly hit as that here but even so, this has still been our wettest day here for quite a long time, possibly since that really miserable summer which we had this year) yet doesn't get classed as a named storm whereas there are other weather systems which do get classed as named storms, but which end up being virtually non-events in terms of their impacts? To me, this weather system which we have had today should have been named as Storm Caroline (which is the next name in this year's list), and there should have been some amber warnings in place for the most badly affected areas (which of course, would have resulted in that happening automatically) in addition to the yellow warnings which were actually given.

But is it unusual for the time of year. Not really. So only worthy of yellow as a heads up.

I fully agree that these events aren't unusual for this time of year. However, aren't these warning systems supposed to be based on potential impacts rather on whether or not it is unusual for such an event to occur at this time of year?

If so, this should have been an amber warning in my books otherwise you could hypothetically have a potential situation where it was common for storm systems to always cause life-threatening impacts which would otherwise merit a red warning, only for that to just get a yellow warning instead simply because the event in question wasn't 'unusual' for the time of year and that would just be really silly.

 

I fully agree that these events aren't unusual for this time of year. However, aren't these warning systems supposed to be based on potential impacts rather on whether or not it is unusual for such an event to occur at this time of year?

If so, this should have been an amber warning in my books otherwise you could hypothetically have a potential situation where it was common for storm systems to always cause life-threatening impacts which would otherwise merit a red warning, only for that to just get a yellow warning instead simply because the event in question wasn't 'unusual' for the time of year and that would just be really silly.

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I quite agree...on my way home from dropping off my daughter I decided to take a country route...noticed 2 trees down and numerous branches dislodged. That was only in a five mile route!..Some significant gusts here overnight..

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Home : Mid Leicestershire ...135m ASL

I fully agree that these events aren't unusual for this time of year. However, aren't these warning systems supposed to be based on potential impacts rather on whether or not it is unusual for such an event to occur at this time of year?

Yes that's my view too.  

I don't think that there is a separate thread for this one, so I thought that I would just post this here because you will no doubt have read and seen in the media the Met Office has just named this week's weather system which is forecast to bring cold Arctic winds behind it as Storm Caroline which is now, out third named storm of this season. In relation to that, I am going to quote below, a response on the MO thread to a post there where I had predicted that this could be a named storm as a BBC forecast had predicted storm force northerly winds in parts of Scotland from that.

 

Not if it's only affecting Scotland... If it might get windy in Englandshire, then a named storm is likely

FWIW I'm still hopeful of the Russian/Scandi high making an appearance.  Hints have been modeled in FI and if we continue see lower heights in to Europe I believe this is a possibility.

To that, I then replied with my reasons why I believe that where such an event happens in UK has no effect on whether or not, a named storm system should be given this status. As far as I can see, no-one else on these forums had even mentioned the possibility of Storm Caroline being named before I did on that other thread (or course, I don't want to reply directly to that again over there since I don't want to be going off topic there).

Effectively, the person who posted this above reply clearly and effectively rubbished the fact that you can still get a named storm even if the event only effects Scotland and yet, today's announcement of this latest named storm has proved that a storm can indeed, still be named if the effects of that are mainly only in Scotland. In other words, I was proved right in the end and I'm sure that Pdiddy (whoever he is) will now be eating his words with that one. It is just a shame as well, not a single person at TWO who I know of, even latched onto that before I did.

It is looking dangerously windy up here and other northern parts tomorrow

This is the current wording of the amber warning from the Met Office:

“Storm Caroline is expected to bring a spell of very windy weather to northern Scotland. Gusts of 70 to 80 mph are expected widely with gusts to 90 mph possible in exposed areas. Flying debris is likely and could lead to injuries or danger to life. Some damage to buildings is possible, such as tiles blowing off roofs. Longer journey times and cancellations are likely, as road, rail, air and ferry services may be affected. There is a good chance that power cuts may also occur. Large waves are expected and beach material may be thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and properties.”

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/warnings#?date=2017-12-07

The only thing which surprises me here was that the storm was named before the amber warnings were issued because I had thought that the criteria for a storm being named was that an amber warning had to already be in place which would then result in the naming of that storm that happening automatically.

Having said that though, this doesn't actually make any difference in this case because this storm has been named and the amber warnings are in place. In the end, that is probably the correct decision in this instance. Where I live here in Edinburgh, I am inside the yellow warning area for this event and even down here in the Central, gusts of up to 60mph to 70mph are possible during tomorrow according to the latest forecast.

It is already rather blowy here just now but of course, that wind is probably going to be even stronger tomorrow. That is going to make it very noisy here during tonight with that howling wind outside which could therefore, make it difficult for me to get to sleep. I wouldn't therefore like to imagine what it will then be like up north inside the actual amber warning area.

In addition ScotRail are suspending some of their northern services tomorrow, ferries will inevitably be disrupted and one of the North Sea platforms is being fully evacuated.

https://www.scotrail.co.uk/about-scotrail/news/storm-caroline-impact-train-services

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-42257660

Thanks a bunch Caroline.

Given that Carol Kirkwood was presenting this morning's forecast on BBC Breakfast, it would been interesting to hear what she might have said about that if this storm had been named just as Storm Carol instead of Storm Caroline.