Stormy Weather!

[SiHart]

What a welcome home- the biggest storms of the winter are currently hitting the UK!

Tanker 'at risk' off island
Winds of up to 80mph are battering southern England as severe storms move in from the Atlantic.
A tanker with 13 crew on board is in difficulty off the Isle of Wight as the island experienced 70mph gusts.

A tree came down on a house in Lytchett Matravers, near Poole, but there were no reports of any injuries.

Forecasters have warned Solent Coastguard to expect more gales up to violent storm force 11. Ferries across the region have been affected.

Southsea seafront has been closed to traffic and floodgates in Old Portsmouth have been shut after a warning of very high tides.

In Dorset, one of the worst-hit areas, police said there had been no major incidents, although fallen trees could cause travel problems.

The Red Jet catamaran service between Southampton and West Cowes was suspended but is back in service.

The Red Funnel vehicle ferry between East Cowes and Southampton and the hovercraft from Portsmouth to Ryde were also suspended.

P&O Ferries cancelled its Sunday sailing from Portsmouth to Bilbao, Spain, and the return journey on Tuesday.

The Bramblemet weather station, in the central Solent, measured highest gusts of 48.3 knots, gale force 10.

Hyde Primary School, Fordingbridge, was forced to close due to a loss of heating and power.

Phone lines were brought down in Main Road, Dibden, while power cables came down in Grove Road, Barton on Sea. A tree came down on the A259 in Emsworth.

A Hampshire police spokeswoman said there was the possibility of flooding on the A3.

"We'd like to advise motorists to be extremely aware that they are likely to come across flooding and quite a bit of debris on roads," she said.

The effects of the bad weather were also felt in north Hampshire and Berkshire, where many trees fell on to roads including the A30 and Basing Road, Basingstoke, the A4 in Woolhampton and Newbury, and George Street in Kingsclere.

Insp Mike Kynaston, of Dorset Police, warned people to make only "essential" journeys.

"Unless your journey is absolutely essential I would not travel, and if you are travelling do so with extreme caution," he said.

The Environment Agency opened its national incident room, warning of the risk of high waves and flooding in southern England.

The agency is urging people to stay away from exposed coastal areas and to check for flood warnings in their area as strong winds, waves and high tides would continue until Wednesday.

How are things where you are at the moment? It's wet and VERY windy here right now!

Si xx

[Paul Monk]

Wet, very windy and dark. And people are still trying to use umbrellas! Why?

[Antony Cox]

Wet, very windy and dark. And people are still trying to use umbrellas! Why?

Perhaps they have a Mary Poppins thing going on?

Very windy and rainy here (near Gatwick) too. I hope it's not too bad on the way home - mind you, they have been known to let us go early when the weather's really bad, especially those who live some distance away as I do.

[Stuart Wallis]

I'm still soaked from when I came in. The heavy rain's on-and-off here, but it's always on when I have to go out. I must have lied when I was seventeen...

[duncan]

It's been wet and windy on and off in South-East London today, but it is sunny and bright at the moment.

[Dirk Gently]

It was wet & windy earlier but everything seems to have calmed down here.
The News said earlier that these are the worst winds for 10 years.

[duncan]

It's hammering down now.

[Larry]

What a welcome home- the biggest storms of the winter are currently hitting the UK!



How are things where you are at the moment? It's wet and VERY windy here right now!

Si xx

in Reading today, it's been typical easter wheather of moments of sunshine one miniute and heavy rain the next thankfull though the strong winds have not come being just blustery.

[WhiteCrow]

The wind is really scarey - I cannot believe like an idiot I've cycled in this morning!

[Captain Tancredi]

Blue sky and a breeze in Leeds at 11 this morning- even the threatened heavy snow hasn't put in an appearance yet.

[Pip Madeley]

No strong winds here, although I did get soaked on the walk to the tram station this morning. I sensibly decided to buy a Primark (you can stay under my) umbrella (ella ella ey ey ey) this lunchtime.

[Antony Cox]

I had a call from our neighbour this afternoon telling me that a ridge tile had blown off our roof and smashed on the driveway. Good job my car wasn't there otherwise it'd have landed straight on the roof. Our other car was next to it but doesn't seem to have been damaged.

I had to get up in the loft and patch the hole up a bit - hopefully someone will be able to come and have a look at it tomorrow.

[Stephen Morgan]

The worst of our weather seemed to come this morning, I had to go shopping in it and as I rushed through the town the rain was lashing in my eyes, I had to take my glasses off to see.
This afternoon didn't seem so bad even if it didn't stop raining.

Looking at all the news reports from all over the south west and south Wales though, I can't believe the number of newsmen who are reporting right from the very coastline itself, with waves lashing over them. For all the warnings about not going near the coast in these conditions they do so just for the sake of a story. Madness or what!

[Rob McCow]

One of the papers today has a picture of two men with a pram, standing on the coast next to a huge wave. The headline was 'Buggy Idiots!' Which goes to show that our national newspapers really are being written by a crack team of 12 year olds.

The predicted 'Travel Chaos - Misery For Millions (TM)' has failed to arrive. There were horses on the line at Egham this morning, but I still got into work a mere 10 minutes later than usual.

[Perry Vale]

And people are still trying to use umbrellas! Why?

My first thought. They should be banned. And so should the people.

[Captain Tancredi]

There were horses on the line at Egham this morning

I think we need to know whether there were eggs on the line at Horsham too.

But seriously, if they'd hitched the horses onto the front of the train it might even have been early.

[Rob McCow]

I think we need to know whether there were eggs on the line at Horsham too.

ARGH!

The trains were running fine today, only 4 minutes late. We had power cuts last night, but the first one lasted about 10 minutes and the others were about 3 seconds long. Not bad at all, really.

[Paul Monk]

I had a section of fence I was planning on fixing destroyed last night which has made fixing it even harder.

[Pip Madeley]

It was horrible walking to work this morning, if I didn't have my umbrella (ella ella eh eh eh) I'd have been drowned...

[WhiteCrow]

I had a section of fence I was planning on fixing destroyed last night which has made fixing it even harder.

It's a conspiracy - DIY shops and roof tilers made so much money last year they secretly set off a nuclear bomb in the Atlantic to cause another set of bad wind.