Storm Darragh brought gusts of close to 100mph, but the future threat may lie elsewhere
Storm Darragh is the first storm since last January’s Isha to earn a red “threat to life” warning from the Met Office.
And it has lived up to that dubious honour.
The highest recorded windspeed was 93mph (150kph) in Capel Curig in Wales and at least one person is thought to have died as a result of the storm.
Get the five-day forecast where you are
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Pier in Welsh town battered by storm
While Darragh wasn’t the most intense storm in recent years, it was a monster. The extra-tropical cyclone (to give it it’s proper title) measured 1,000km (621 miles) across as it passed right over the UK.
Revolving anti-clockwise, as such storms do, it encircled our coasts with winds from the north and east with the most powerful barrelling in from the southwest.
It’s just over two weeks since Storm Bert brought widespread flooding and high winds to Wales and southern England with four named storms now in the last three months.
So, it’s not unreasonable to ask: Is the UK getting stormier?
UK named storms. Pic: Met Office
The 2023/24 storm season was certainly a bad one with 12 named storms. The Met Office got so far down the alphabet the season ended with Lilian’s yellow warnings for rain and wind in August.
But the season before saw just two named storms. You have to go back to 2015/16, when there were 11 named storms.
The picture is messier before that date as the naming convention began in 2015, making comparisons before then impossible.
A person takes shelter under an umbrella on the Sean O’Casey Bridge in Dublin. Pic: PA
However, meteorologists believe the 2013/14 storm season was the most severe in at least two decades.
At least 12 named storms brought major coastal flooding and the inundation of the Somerset levels with water for weeks on end.
No clear trends
In fact, a recent review of storm records, going back over four decades, has revealed there’s no clear trend between our rapidly warming planet and the frequency of North Atlantic storms.
The jet stream – the high-altitude atmospheric current that tends to steer weather systems towards us over the North Atlantic – has a complicated and so far indecipherable relationship with climate change.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘It’s not Wizard Of Oz stuff’
The current best guess is that storms may get more frequent and more windy when, on current trends, the world is around two degrees warmer a few decades from now. But as things currently stand that’s an uncertain prediction.
What is clearer, is the relationship between warming and how much rain storms bring.
Average winter rainfall has been increasing across Northern Europe and simple physics help explain that.
A tree which hit a car in Liverpool. Pic: PA
More rainfall likely as the climate warms
With every degree increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7% more water vapour – water that eventually falls as rain.
And the warmer the oceans are, the more readily they give up their moisture and the more energy – in the form of heat – they can transfer to storms.
The trend in ocean temperatures – particularly in the North Atlantic over which most of our storms develop – has been stark in recent years.
North Atlantic Daily Sea Surface Temperatures 1985-2024. Pic: Climatereanalyzer.org/NOAA
Surface temperatures there in 2023/24 have tracked up to a degree or more above average in records going back to the 1980s.
Read more:
Premier League striker ‘stable’ after car crash
Storm Darragh latest – man dies and major incident declared
William meets Trump at Notre Dame reopening
As Storm Darragh moves on, we’ll get a flavour of what our wetter future feels like.
The system is dumping rain across most of the UK, even areas that were thankfully spared the worst of its lethal winds.
An amber warning has been issued for snow in a part of the UK, likely to cause travel delays and “stranding some vehicles and passengers”.
The warning, which covers south west England, also warns some rural communities could become cut off and is in place until 2pm this evening.
Pic: Met Office
There is also a yellow weather warning for snow covering the southern counties of England until midnight on Wednesday.
The warning stretches from Kent to Cornwall and up to south London and the Met Office said between 2cm and 5cm of snow could accumulate fairly widely, with as much as 10cm over higher ground.
This week is expected to see the coldest nights of the year, with temperatures potentially reaching -14C on Wednesday night and -16C on Thursday night, both in the North East of England and Scotland, the Met Office said.
Weather warnings issued on Tuesday for snow and ice covering the parts of Wales, the North West of England, west and northern parts of Scotland as well as Northern Ireland will remain in place until midnight tomorrow.
The forecaster said some roads and railways are likely to be affected and there could be icy patches on untreated roads.
Pics: AP
Meanwhile the Environment Agency has said at least 300 properties have flooded across England since New Year’s Eve. It estimates more than 41,000 properties have been protected.
Heavy rainfall over the New Year caused significant river and surface water flooding across the North West of England and Yorkshire and snowmelt has brought further disruption to parts of England, particularly the Midlands, the agency said.
Read more from Sky News:
Terrifying firestorm rips through home of film stars and billionaires
Homes destroyed – how people are coping with floods
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Man says flooding ‘came out of nowhere’
Floods minister Emma Hardy said: “My sympathies go out to the people, businesses and communities impacted by the recent flooding across the country.
“I want to express my heartfelt thanks for the vital work that the Environment Agency and emergency services are doing to keep people safe. People must continue to follow their advice and sign up for flood warnings.”
Flood warnings
Some 100 flood warnings were in force across England on Wednesday, with people urged to remain vigilant over the coming days.
A danger-to-life warning was issued on Tuesday morning for the River Soar near Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, but was later removed.
People living in caravan parks in the area were urged by the Environment Agency to act, with a large-scale evacuation needed to save lives.
Firefighters have rescued dozens of people across Leicestershire since Monday, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service said.
Hundreds of schools were closed across the UK, with road and rail links blocked, as Manchester, Bristol and Liverpool John Lennon airports suspended flights because of the conditions.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway