Storm Ciara UpdateAdded : Saturday at 14:15 Right, Storm Ciara comes in tomorrow across the UK. The wind actually starts to pick up later this evening and if you look at the GFS ► gust charts you can see what's happening. Here is the gust chart for tonight :-
You can see a swathe of stronger winds moving Southeast. This is the frontal system of the previous low pressure area which heads Northeast away from the British Isles, Ciara is a primary low pressure area around 250mi West of Scotland at midnight tonight.
Tomorrow afternoon and Ciara brings rain :-
And strong winds across a large swathe of the British Isles :-
The strongest of the winds will be just ahead of the cold front which moves steadily Southeast through the course of tomorrow.
Ciara is interesting because not just the size of the system, but the strongest winds remain in a Southsouthwest direction which means that more of the country is exposed to these winds. AROME shows the gusts up well :-
You can see inland gusts of 70mph+ which is fairly uncommon for inland locations. Given the strength and direction, it's likely weak trees, branches etc will fall. It's worth also noting that wind gusts at elevation will be higher too which means any interests at height should be aware of extremely strong wind gusts through the course of tomorrow.
During Sunday afternoon and into the evening we see the cold front continue to head Southeast :-
AROME showing the continued risk of a squall line developing on the cold front across Southern areas which explains the focus on high wind gusts along the South coast later on Sunday.
Ciara is a somewhat typical low pressure area for February across the British Isles, but the added tweaks of the wind direction and the inland maximum gusts mean that it should be respected.
Stay safe and respect powerful Atlantic systems like this one.
METEOROLOGIST : MARSH |