The third named storm of the season has been battering the UK, Channel Islands and northern parts of France this week. The terrible weather has worsened over the last 24 hours and caused travel chaos across the UK with cancellations and delays.
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The weather has brought flooding and high winds to Northern Ireland, Wales, the south of England and eastern Scotland, and the Met Office even issued a ‘danger to life’ warning for flying debris. Here’s the impact the storm has had so far and how long we can expect the chaos to continue.
Storm Ciarán's impact
Hundreds of schools in the south of England have closed for the day, Thursday 2 November, as the storm batters the UK. The weather could also cause ‘structural damage’; roofs of buildings could blow off and power lines and trees are at risk of falling.
There are also likely to be power cuts and travel disruption has already been announced. National Rail has stated that ‘most train companies running services in the south of England, South Wales and North East England could be affected by the storm’.
In the Channel Islands, panic buying broke out after residents were advised to stay at home. The Island of Jersey was pummeled last night by golf ball-sized hail storms that have reportedly been breaking windows. In France, one death has already been reported and RNLI Water Safety Manager Ross Macleod has urged UK citizens in high risk coastal areas to stay at home:
Sadly, around 150 people accidentally lose their lives in UK and Irish waters each year and over half of these people didn’t plan on ever entering the water. Slips, trips and falls can be a major factor in these kinds of incidents.
While people may want to experience extreme weather around the coast, we would strongly advise against doing so. It is not worth risking your life, so we urge people to respect the water and watch from a safe distance.
When the bad weather will end
Thankfully, the terrible weather is not expected to last for much longer. Met Office Chief meteorologist Dan Suri said:
As well as strong winds, this deep low pressure system will bring heavy rain to many parts of the UK.
Much of southern England and south Wales, as well as parts of north Wales, northeast England, southeast Scotland and perhaps the east of Northern Ireland look to see the wettest conditions between Wednesday evening and Friday morning.
As of 10am on Thursday 2 November, the Met Office has no warnings issued for Saturday. So it looks like the worst of the weather will be over by the start of the weekend. This is good news for the UK, especially areas that are still recovering from the chaos caused by Storm Babet.
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Sources used:
Met Office: UK weather warnings
Met Office Press Office: Storm Ciarán
Metro: Storm Ciarán latest – Hail stones size of wiffle balls, thousands without power and trains cancelled
Independent: Storm Ciarán triggers three days of travel chaos in the UK and beyond
