Tonight's storm has been named Georgina. Seems like a very late call to me as several of us were talking about this a few days ago. I'm not sure whether it meets the Met Office criteria and if that matters since Met Eireann have tagged this one.  

Tonight's storm has been named Georgina. Seems like a very late call to me as several of us were talking about this a few days ago. I'm not sure whether it meets the Met Office criteria and if that matters since Met Eireann have tagged this one.  

I don't think that the UK Met Office are best pleased with our lot about naming storms of late. 

http://www.thejournal.ie/storm-fionn-row-3804345-Jan2018/

Haven't the Met Eireann named pretty much every single storm this season? Maybe they are getting a bit too carried away with it, I wonder if that's what the problem is?

Haven't the Met Eireann named pretty much every single storm this season? Maybe they are getting a bit too carried away with it, I wonder if that's what the problem is?

Perhaps. They got a lot of plaudits back in October when they issued a red warning for the whole country before Storm Ophelia. All government offices, schools, colleges etc. and the vast majority of private businesses were shut down when Ophelia hit. No doubt, that shut down saved lives. It is possible that all the praise that they received for warning about Ophelia has gone to their head a bit!

I suppose that it also depends on what is the purpose of naming these storms at all. Can anyone remind me?

Any old bit of a blow is a named storm these days .Even if it technically isn't a storm or have storm force winds contained within?.

Beats me.

We called them gales a while back, before all the hysteria.

I think the issue should be, what is a storm, regardless of who feels the need to claim and name it?.

Haven't the Met Eireann named pretty much every single storm this season? Maybe they are getting a bit too carried away with it, I wonder if that's what the problem is?

This of course, is the same Irish weather service which even allocated one of those storm names (Storm Fionn) to something which didn't even have an area of low pressure attached to it, and this was only the first time that I can remember this actually happening.

I am also surprised that it is the Irish Met Service again, rather than our own UK Met Office which has now given Storm Georgina its name since the models appear to have been pointing towards the west and north of Scotland in particular, getting the greatest impact from that, with the Irish Republic not being impacted as much on this occasion.

This is supposed to be a joint UK/Ireland operation and yet, it is though our very own UK Met Office somehow, can't be trusted at the moment as regards to making their own contribution towards naming these storm systems.

Yes if this is for the winds over Northern Scotland tomorrow, just been looking at the pressure gradient, looks like a good force 10 up there.

ICON 12z view.

ICON 12z view.

That to me, is all the more reason why I can't understand how Met Eireann managed to get in first as regards to naming this system ahead of our own UK Met Office, since I can't see anywhere on that map where there are any issues over in the Irish Republic (the very part of the world which they are supposed to serve) which would form any sort of basis for that happening.

Hysteria?.

I'm under a National Orange Alert tonight from Met Éireann.

I won't be bringing the milk bottles in, living on the East coast.(Dublin)

It might get a bit windy which is not unusual, but that's all.I could be sure many other people around the country feel the same after many a hype.

It might get a bit rough over the sea and ocean but luckily not many people live there.

 

This of course, is the same Irish weather service which even allocated one of those storm names (Storm Fionn) to something which didn't even have an area of low pressure attached to it, and this was only the first time that I can remember this actually happening.

I am also surprised that it is the Irish Met Service again, rather than our own UK Met Office which has now given Storm Georgina its name since the models appear to have been pointing towards the west and north of Scotland in particular, getting the greatest impact from that, with the Irish Republic not being impacted as much on this occasion.

This is supposed to be a joint UK/Ireland operation and yet, it is though our very own UK Met Office somehow, can't be trusted at the moment as regards to making their own contribution towards naming these storm systems.

 

This page has the list of UK storms for the current season. Storm David from last week has been added to this list.  

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/barometer/uk-storm-centre

So we have now had 9 named storms impacting the UK this season. Of these 5 have been named by Met Eireann, one by Meteo France and one by the NHC. Only 2, Aileen and Caroline were actually named by the Met Office.

I don't want to sound overly critical but the lack of warnings for tomorrow morning surprises me. Could we have a repeat of last week? Here's the ICON 18z view.

The high-res charts show quite a vicious kink in the isobars crossing the country, looks like a really sharp trough tomorrow.

Exactly. I find myself scratching my head again this evening. 

Met Eireann named this system and are only forecasting winds up to 75mph (120kph) but have issued an orange warning

STATUS ORANGE

Wind Warning for Ireland

A depression now named Storm Georgina will track to the northwest of the country tonight. Southwest winds will reach mean speeds between 65 and 80 km/h, gusting up to 120 km/h for a time tonight.

Tuesday 23 January 2018 14:00

Wednesday 24 January 2018 00:01 to Wednesday 24 January 2018 05:00

The Met Office is forecasting winds gusting up to 80 mph but only has a yellow warning (this is because winds of this speed in the western Isles of Scotland are not usual and it is not a highly populated area). But that said the ICON and other models are suggesting winds speeds could reach 90mph (up to 150kph) which surely would warrant an amber warning. 

Between 01:00 Wed 24th and 14:00 Wed 24th

A spell of windy weather is expected with gusts widely 50 to 60 mph and over the Hebrides and northern and western parts of Highland gusts are likely to reach 70 to 80 mph. These high winds will probably affect some bus and train services leaving some journeys taking longer. Delays for high-sided vehicles on exposed routes and bridges are likely and some short term loss of power and other services is possible.

As you point out Rob there is likely to be a band of very strong straight line winds close to the cold front as it moves through England. Gusts of 65-75mph even inland are quite possible.

http://modeles.meteociel.fr/modeles/icon/runs/2018012318/iconeu_uk1-11-16-0.png?23-21

Yet no mention of this from the Met Office in any warnings at all. Indeed the T16 chart linked above from the 18z ICON run has gusts of 120-130kph (75-80mph) over parts of Eastern England. This model is somewhat out on its own with these speeds but even so gusts of over 60mph over mainland UK have frequently resulted in a yellow warning in the past. So something of a lack of consistency I think. Yes the strong winds over England will only last a short period of time, but that is irrelevant. They could easily be strong enough to cause disruption.

 

I don't think that the UK Met Office are best pleased with our lot about naming storms of late. 

http://www.thejournal.ie/storm-fionn-row-3804345-Jan2018/

The pdf article linked at the end is quite interesting. It was clearly written a little while ago but it suggests that the aim is for a European wide storm naming system to be integrated into EMMA by 2019. EMMA is the project to display alerts and warnings of EUMETNET member countries in an easily understandable way. This done via the Meteoalarm website at present. But of course at the moment the warning colours and definitions vary from country to country. An integrated and consistent system does seem to be the aim and may not be too far away.

http://www.euroforecaster.org/latenews/storm.pdf

http://eumetnet.eu/activities/forecasting-programme/current-activities-fc/emma/

I now rely on getting my weather warnings from my local train company! This just in from Southwestern

Dear Customer,

From the early hours of Wednesday morning a band of squally weather will cross our network bringing some rain and blustery wind conditions.

From 0500 on Wednesday gusts will start to build towards 40 mph, with speeds increasing to up to 55 mph in some areas.

The strongest winds will be experienced between 0800 and 1100 as the peak of the squall passes through.

The narrow band of rain and wind will push across our network to affect different areas in turn for approximately 20 minutes at a time.

Coastal regions are expected to experience the strongest gusts at near 55 mph.

As the squall passes it is possible that some trees and other debris may be blown onto our railway. To ensure that any incidents can be dealt with effectively, specialist response teams will be placed on stand-by at key locations on our network. They will attend any fallen debris and work to remove it quickly.

Strongest gusts so far not at mountain sites:

Capel Curig 83mph

Aberdaron 74mph