From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
You will remember that Storm Goretti supposedly set a new record gust speeds at St Mary’s Airport on the Isles of Scilly earlier this month:
Much was made of the fact that there is a long record of wind data in the Scillies, so, supposedly, winds of 99 mph must be truly exceptional.
I was highly sceptical at the time, pointing out much more powerful storms have hit the Southwest, including Burns Day in 1990, when winds of 93 kts, 107 mph were measured in Cornwall – the highest wind speeds to hit Cornwall during Goretti were only 90 mph:
I therefore sent the Met Office an FOI, asking for the data on the Scillies during the Burns Day storm. This is their response:
Note as well that the “new” record is specifically for the Airport, not the Scillies as a whole. As the Airport site only started recording wind speeds in 1991, there must be many, more powerful storms before 1991. Ones like the 1979 storm, which brought 118 mph winds to Gwennap Head:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/uk-climate-extremes
Storm Goretti was clearly not the “exceptional” storm it was made out to be by the BBC and others!
CORRECTION
The Burns Day storm was of course in 1990, not 1991 – now corrected!
Like you described, this is just more Climate Change Propaganda.
That is all the Met Office is capable of any more.
We know that….
They know that we know that…
… but they just don’t care.
They don’t write them like they used to…
Sevenoaks is an historic town in Kent…
‘Winds gusted at more than 100mph, thousands of trees came crashing down and Sevenoaks, memorably, was reduced to One oak
Only one of the Seven Oaks remained standing in the Great Storm of 1987 – this is the survivor, the glorious King Oak.
– Kent Live
15 million trees down and 18 dead in that storm, the storm with no name; how many in the latest and scariest? This storm lashed Cornwall (or Kernow) which is not exactly noted for its woods and forests, more for its moorland etc. And apparently there was one unfortunate death.
Hence the BBC headline: Goretti among ‘most impactful’ storms in decades
Some of us remember 1987 very well indeed.
A straightforward comparison of storms:
1703: Wind speeds of greater than 120mph nationally; huge damage nationally to buildings; >8,000 people killed;
1987: Wind speeds up to 134mph recorded; huge devastation nationally; 15 MILLION trees knocked down; 18 people killed;
2026: Winds speeds up to 99mph recorded; wide spread damage in Cornwall and Devon; 1 person killed.
If you’re a rational individual, you’d say, sh#t happens.
But, if you’re an ululating idiotic attributional catastrophist . . . you don’t have a f#cking leg to stand on.
Another point to note is that “worst since (xxxx)” doesn’t mean “worse than (xxxx)” but the implication is always that it was. Take all such claims with a pinch of salt.
Exactly. “Worst since…” means it was just as bad or worse 300 years ago, which means much ado about nothing. Just bad weather.
Whenever you see a headline with a ‘?‘ at the end
e.g., Is this …. the worst ever ?
You know the answer is NO;
It’s just clickbait.
Exceptional wind record in St. Maarten?
Off topic, more settled science
Mid pandemic (2021)…
Vitamin D supplements don’t help ward off colds and flus, new research finds. – ABC
5 years later…
Vitamin D Protects You From Flu, Oxford Scientists Find
Getting enough vitamin D really can help to protect you against the flu, a study by Oxford scientists has found, with people with severe vitamin D deficiency 33% more likely to be admitted to hospital. – Daily Sceptic
My advice? Use your loaf.
Unfortunately the headline is misleading, of the 10 authors there are two who have any connection with an Oxford based organisation and that is the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford, United Kingdom. Other organisations represented by the authors are the Royal College of General Practitioners Research and surveillance Group based in London and the universities of Reading and Surrey.
The paper makes the following conclusion
“Serum 25(OH)D status <15 nmol/L is associated with 33% higher HR for RTI hospitalization among United Kingdom adults, compared with ≥75 nmol/L. Furthermore, studies are warranted to validate these findings and explore the mechanisms underlying the association between vitamin D status and RTIs in different ethnic groups.”
However, a presentation from 2024 by the same authors from the universities of Surrey and Reading did look at the differences between ethnicities using the same data source.
The earlier paper gives this as its conclusion
“Serum 25(OH)D concentrations above 25 nmol/L are associated with lower likelihood of RTI hospitalisation among UK adults. This
finding was noted across white and ethnic minority groups, although ethnic minorities with vitamin D deficiency had a lower likelihood
of RTIs compared to white individuals. Further studies are warranted to validate these findings and explore the mechanisms underlying
the association between vitamin D status and RTIs in different ethnic groups.”
The two conclusions are not dissimilar, except the later paper states that seriously deficient people are more likely to be hospitalised than those with normal levels, whereas the earlier paper states that people with concentrations above mild deficiency are at lower risk than those with lower levels without characterising the difference.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/EE37A65ED12C04DD86A5D5E0FC1CE23D/S0029665124004610a.pdf/association-between-serum-25-hydroxyvitamin-d-concentrations-and-respiratory-tract-infections-requiring-hospital-admission-analysis-of-ethnic-groups-from-the-uk-biobank-cohort.pdf
Ah, Homewood again.
“Much was made of the fact that there is a long record of wind data in the Scillies, so, supposedly, winds of 99 mph must be truly exceptional.”
The MetO say on the Screen shot above ….
The highest recorded gust speed as a result of storm Goretti is currently 99mph, recorded at St Mary’s airport at the Isles of Scilly, making it a new record for the site”
It specically says “for the site” and not for the Scillies.
Also where is this “Much was made of the fact that there is a long record of wind data in the Scillies” ?
I see none in his post (rather the contrary).
And this is the post Homewood puts at the bottom but with no link or expansion ….
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czejy201r1eo
Which was written David Braine (BBC and ex MetO Forecaster) and ends ….
“So in my opinion based just on wind gusts, Storm Goretti is in the top five of the most powerful storms in the South West on record with 1703, 1859, 1979, and the Burns Day storm of 1990 being stronger.
Oh and his picture of (a) storm is not Goretti (maybe, generously, he didn’t mean to imply it was).
It didn’t come from a position to the west of SW Ireland – it traveled eastward well south of Ireland with it’s centre crossing S Cornwall, and so with the Scilles being on the right side of the storm it was situated to receive it’s strongest winds.
Here it is ….
And a video …
https://www.threads.com/@zoom_earth/post/DTQYAYKAKEe/video-storm-goretti-swirls-over-the-uk-and-ireland
https://www.threads.com/@zoom_earth/post/DTQYAYKAKEe/media
Feeling better?
Yes thanks.
Always grateful to debunk Homewood.
It’s so easy!
You didn’t debunk me [above]. Because the facts are what they are…
This storm was bog standard for the time of year.
Yes, as the MetO spokesman implies ….
“Storm Goretti is in the top five of the most powerful storms in the South West on record with 1703, 1859, 1979, and the Burns Day storm of 1990 being stronger.”
And as they say in the reply to Homewood the site has only been open since 1991.
BTW: the storm was actually not able to be anything other than an average “bad” storm as only the Scilly isles and the Channel Isles was positioned to the right of the storm when it was at its deepest and as it travelled E along the Channel coast.
The Met Office…
That bastion of truth… very funny.
39 years ago.
And he was correct it wasn’t a hurricane – but there was one in the west Alantic at the time.
https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/learn-about/weather/case-studies/great-storm
“TV weather presenter Michael Fish will long be remembered for telling viewers there would be no hurricane on the evening before the storm struck. He was unlucky, however, as he was talking about a different storm system over the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean that day. This storm, he said, would not reach the British Isles – and it didn’t. It was the rapidly deepening depression from the Bay of Biscay which struck. This storm wasn’t officially a hurricane as it did not originate in the tropics – but it was certainly exceptional. In the Beaufort scale of wind force, Hurricane Force (Force 12) is defined as a wind of 64 knots or more, sustained over a period of at least 10 minutes. Gusts, which are comparatively short-lived (but cause a lot of destruction) are not taken into account. By this definition, Hurricane Force winds occurred locally but were not widespread.”
It was a hurricane only some cannot bring themselves to admit it.
oh grief so anal Banton is at it again.
I was in London that night.
I never saw trees before or after that were bent right over just as hurricane force winds covered the streets with debris and downed trees all up and down it.
I wonder where Banton was that night?
Sleeping somewhere just like the dumb met office who got it all wrong (yet again!(
Yes, the track counts for a lot when categorising storms for news value.
It was less than “meh” for me just 100km northward. Literally only breezy, Barely. It was just as windy yesterday at noon during Storm…oh, that’s right, there wasn’t one.
Why did you think the “others” were the MET Office?
Or did you think the MET Office was the BBC?
It’s a strawman.
And that comment is a squirrel.
I meant “Others” in the widest sense, specifically those that need to sensationalise stuff …. coz it pays.
“Storm Goretti was clearly not the “exceptional” storm it was made out to be by the BBC and others!”
Gotta keep those listeners listenin’ and watchers watchin’.
It wasn’t “made out” to be anything of the sort by the MetO (maybe others – but media are interested in sensationalism), bar the one high wind value recorded at St Mary’s airport Scilly Isles.
See above.
Wrong place
Story Tip: Nullius in Verba edition!!!
Climate Change is Not Causing Mass Extinctions, Says Bombshell Royal Society Paper
…decadal extinction rates over the last 100 years had “significantly declined” for arthropods and plants… – Daily Sceptic
Unpacking the extinction crisis: rates, patterns and causes of recent extinctions in plants and animals
Speaking of species extinction:
These were declared extint last year but most hadn’t been seen seen for 30+ years
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/declared-extinct-in-2025-a-look-back-at-some-of-the-species-weve-lost/
And then there is the continued discovery of new species:
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/
Much WAS made in the media, and especially the BBC, of the extraordinary nature of Goretti, explosive cyclogenesis, wind strength etc. and it was in the overall tone and general repetitive saturation of the narrative which won’t be evident looking at individual report instances.
Some very strong gusts were recorded in the 120-130mph(France) range, but the lowest pressure was only 966 so clearly it was not a particularly exceptional storm by historical standards.
“explosive cyclogenesis, wind strength etc”
Explosive cyclogenesis yes, but wind strength was only exceptional across the Scillies and the channel Isles (discounting the north coastal areas of France).
The Great Storm Of 1703
https://youtu.be/tccWmr9bZYA?si=tN0Q5ld5Q4O4oSw7
This is meaningless drivel, the highest recorded wind gust in the US was 231 mph in 1934.