Batten down the hatches!-Tropical Storm warning

[Kit-Ginevra]

Tropical Storm Abigail* is on its way to the south and east of England. Storms and gale warnings on the way.90mph winds. Lovely.Stay safe people. *looks for being-swept-away-on-umbrella-smiley*



*They got the public to choose the name of this one. I only just realized today that the name describes it perfectly.It is indeed 'A-big-gale'...

[Chromatix]

It's not often that you see the word "tropical" in the context of "south-east England", especially in November.

[Seshat]

Indeed.

So since I doubt the British members of our group have experience in staying safe in a tropical storm (I assume this is referring to a cyclone/typhoon/hurricane type of storm), I'll take it on myself to give some advice.

1. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, outside that's smaller than a car is a potential missile. A tennis ball. A dog's chew toy. A mobility scooter. Garden tools. The wood you were planning to use to make a garden seat. Secure them as if for the strongest winds you've ever experienced, then secure them more.
Ideally, put them inside. Inside a shed, inside a cupboard that locks (not necessarily with a key, just one that the wind can't easily open). Inside the house.
If you can't put them inside, but can tie them down with either tie-down straps or under a tarpeulin, do that. And do so as securely as you can, and attached to a support beam of something. The house, the fence, doesn't matter: just attach it to something.
If you really can't do that, use tent pegs and hammer them in hard.

If the storm is going to rip apart your shed or your fence or pull your mailbox post out of the ground, it's a category four or five and frankly, the best thing you can do if it's that level is evacuate.
So if they're predicting a four or a five, plan to evacuate and do so.


2. Not everyone is going to tie down their potential missiles. So plan for your glass to break. If you have shutters of any sort, check them as soon as possible and make sure they're in working order. If you don't, consider taping the windows so that if the glass breaks, it doesn't spread into the room (held together by the tape - hopefully).
Close the shutters at least two hours before the storm is predicted to arrive.


3. Expect your roof to leak. It's not because your roof is badly made, it's because the wind will push rain in ALL directions! This is likely to be the craziest storm you've endured.

4. The power will go out. You may also lose gas and water if you're unlucky. This is normal.
Okay, maybe the power won't go out. But stock up on alternate light sources, and have a hand-crank radio tuned to the emergency information radio station.
And have some form of entertainment that doesn't rely on power.

5. Find the room in the house which has the fewest windows/least glass. If possible, it should be a room which has extra protection from wind-blown debris. It should NOT be the basement - the basement may well flood. Remember that this is also a rainstorm that will dump a LOT of rain in a very, very short period of time, compared to what your drainage system is probably used to.
Plan for your whole family to be in that room - including pets - during the storm.

6. Remember that if the eye of the storm passes over you, IT'S NOT OVER. You have the other half of the storm to get through.

7. If it's not a category four or five, cleanup is likely to be no worse than cleaning up after any other serious natural event. Tedious and you may have lost some precious plants from your garden, but otherwise, meh.


NOTE: DO NOT storm-watch. During the eye you can do so, but hold on to children too young to be sensible - and I mean physically hang on to them, so you can yank them back inside when the eye wall approaches.
But unless it's a category one, or downgraded to 'not a cyclone/hurricane/typhoon', it's too bloody dangerous to stand in the doorway or on the patio and watch the lightning.


For an example of how dangerous these storms can be, google Hurricane Katrina or Cyclone Tracy.


That said, I wish for you all to have a mere category one or two, and nothing more than a bit of excitement and a night spent camping in the safest room in the house.

Good luck.

[NorthernZel]

Ah, yes. We're expecting the remnants of that storm to hit DK tomorrow. Although it's - for the moment - called "Hurricane Kate" over here (I guess it's what the US weather service called it), in case it still has a "storm" category once it reaches our shores it will be named something beginning with the letter G.

I think it won't be worse than a category 2, but I'd still listen to Seshat's advice and take precautions.

[Seshat]

How bad was it? Were any of you or your families hurt?

[EricKei]

Chiming in with my best wishes for you and everyone else in the storms' paths!

Info as of 5:30am this morning US Central time (GMT-6 or so?): http://www.accuweather.com/en/weathe...eland/53564947

Note: Abigail and Kate are separate storms, hitting the Isles in succession.

Hurricane vs ~~ : Under 75mph is a Tropical Storm; above that is a Hurricane. Under either 50 or 40mph (not sure which) is a Tropical Depression. IIRC, a typhoon is a Hurricane that targets Asia/Oceana. A cyclone is almost, but not quite, the same thing as a tornado (both on land, unless they move over a body of water at some point).

PS: Expect people to rush to stores to get important storm-preparation things like water, milk, generators, and batteries...AFTER the storm has passed.

[Chromatix]

On the Beaufort Scale, force 8 is "gale", 9 is "severe gale", 10 is "storm", 11 is "violent storm" and 12 is "hurricane force". All of these merit a "gale warning" in the leader of the Shipping Forecast.

The current Shipping Forecast has one reference to "violent storm 11", in the Rockall area (well offshore, beyond the Hebrides), and no references to "hurricane force".

[Seshat]

We call them cyclones when they develop the characteristic rotation-with-an-eye, whether they're over water or land. ('We' = 'Australians'.)

Once the cyclone-tail makes landfall, whether the eye does or not, it's important for those of us on land to have things battened down.

I remember several times in my young-childhood (around the same year that Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin) that we, in Brisbane, battened down the metaphorical hatches for cyclones that were due to make landfall in Rockhampton or even further north than that.

(Brisbane is latitude 27oS. Rockhampton is 23oS.)


And yes, shipping is very, very dangerous in the vicinity of a cyclone (or hurricane, typhoon....)

[Bardmaiden]

In York it's been very windy and rainy over the last few days and the river Ouse is currently about 4 metres above it's usual levels with more rain expected over the next few days.

I've been having problems with my phone line and the engineer had to give up trying to fix it today it was just too windy and was putting his life at risk.

[wolfie]

I'm sure there will be other people complaining "What do you mean it's too windy? My phone line needs fixing NOW!

[Seshat]

Oh yes: I forgot to mention that flooding is a very real possibility. Both 'normal' (slow) flooding and flash floods.

Also, you can get floods in areas where it hasn't been raining: if it rained upstream, the downstream areas can easily flood. And flood badly.

I trust that noone here is stupid enough to swim or drive in floodwaters. Also, about the only thing you can really do about flooding is evacuate. So be prepared to do so if you're in a flood basin or a river/lake/etc overflow area.

Edit to add: during my childhood when we had a spate of cyclones/cyclone-tail storms, those of us who lived near the top of the hill organised to house those who lived at the bottom, as needed. My Brownie Guide leader's family was my family's billet!

[Kit-Ginevra]

Goodbye Abigail.Hello Barney :S

It's just grey and windy here.Not too bad even travelling up the coast,especially on the Dawlish train line where you're practically in the sea even normally....

[Kit-Ginevra]

He's on his way!

[Bardmaiden]

I'm sure there will be other people complaining "What do you mean it's too windy? My phone line needs fixing NOW!

I'm sure there are, the engineer was apologising all over for not fixing it that day but we were we'd rather you not get hurt. Came back the next day and fixed it with hoist involved (The line from my house to the local box needed replacing!).

I'm sure the river here is going to get higher the ground is sodden and we have been getting more rain, myself and Lady Legira live in a high spot in our city so we'd only get flooded if the Minster (Church you can see from all over the area) was underwater

[Kit-Ginevra]

Here we go again.After Abigail and Barney,we have Tropical Storm Clodagh on the way.Gales,driving rain,up to 2 feet of snow in Scotland.Already,a ferry has been blown about down the Tyne. Stay safe everyone and remember when it's lashing it down with freezing icy rain,it's a TROPICAL storm