From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
While the US struggles with some really stormy weather, the increasingly pathetic Met Office try to whip up hysteria with so-called “Strom Chandra”.
In other words it will be a bit wet and windy.
From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
While the US struggles with some really stormy weather, the increasingly pathetic Met Office try to whip up hysteria with so-called “Strom Chandra”.
In other words it will be a bit wet and windy.
All those coloured warnings or classifications…sometimes I’m so fed up by this utter BS that I truely envy those who are colour blind…or even dogs, for they can only see greyscales. sarc?
Yes the weather was never this dramatic when we only had black & white TV.
I remember the 1950s in Qld when we had 3 cyclones a year.
All got a bit ho-hum with b&w TV.
Back then storms didn’t even had names.
Then they only used to be female.( understandable, those are still the most destructive)
Then they became male and female.
Nowadays they only need to be identified as a storm.
And in 4 years they’ll non-binary and the warning colors a rainbow.
It was always a mistake to give names to storms.
It just encourages them.
I live in Brisbane, and we can get a run of a few storms in a row in one afternoon or night. My father tells us about when we (him, our mother, my sister and I when we were kids) were living in the UK before moving to Australia how there was a run of about four or five storms one night while we were holidaying in a caravan. He said it was pretty scary. With this in mind, it’s absurd to name storms. They come, they go, some are more destructive than others, but they’re very common.
I think you are talking about thunderstorms.
The paper is talking about deep depressions several hundred miles across.
But I have great memories of Bribane in the 1960s, probably my favourate Australian port.
For memories? Standing on the front verandah in Tennyson, watching a storm build up over Cunningham Gap. Watch it advance, then hail on a corrugated iron roof. Hadn’t thought about that in years…..
Rain on a tin roof –
a lullaby for 1950s kids.
I am so stealing that!
“In other words it will be a bit wet and windy.”
Yes, he said it would be wet and windy. He is a weather forecaster. Is he wrong? Should he have forecast something else?
I love it when weather forecasters talk dirty.
(I just hope the “windy” refers to the wind in her hair, not the wind emanating from other regions).
I think there is a real issue about how the combination of the Met Office and the media handle UK weather predictions. There is a prevailing narrative that in recent years something unusual, unprecedented and alarming has happened to UK weather. This is supposed to be caused by global warming, due to human CO2 emissions, and the UK’s Net Zero policy is supposed to be a rational and effective response to it. Whenever a strong weather system arrives, this is then cited as evidence for the supposed UK weather change.
The Met Office, amplified by the media, then issues fairly hysterical warnings. In the hot summer of a year back this was most notable – the country was being warned to stay indoors with the curtains drawn. But if you were in the UK at the peak of the hysteria and walked outside in the afternoon, all you experienced was pleasant warmth, and at night it was pleasantly cool, well cool enough to sleep with a summer duvet on. Meanwhile the coverage of the supposed crisis showed others were having the same experience, the parks and beaches were full of people getting their clothes off. No, it was not dangerous, and it wasn’t even unusual, it was part of the normal course of UK weather which does have occasional hot summers.
You saw it in this coverage of a normally hot summer, and you see it again in this winter’s coverage and forecasts of winter storms.
In fact, nothing unusual is happening to UK weather. Its as variable as it has ever been, neither the current winter storms or the occasional hot or cool or dry or wet summers have been in any way unusual, and none of it is any evidence of global warming.
You ask whether they should be forecasting that it will be wet and windy. Or I suppose whether they should forecast hot days in the summer. Of course they should! That is what they are there for. I guess if they want to name these passing weather systems they are free to do so. What they have to stop, because its totally destroying their credibility, is the exaggerated alarm and crazy advice that they are accompanying these forecasts with.
And they also need to stop, though I am not sure if this is the Met Office or the media or both, picking some forsaken place with the most extreme weather they can find, and reporting it with the implication, though not the direct assertion, that this supports the narrative. It doesn’t, you can always find some hilltop somewhere in the UK that has very high wind, you can always find some airfield somewhere with very high temperature readings or some spot where there has been a cloudburst.
Anyway, the last storm with its dire forecasts appears to have passed with many looking at each other over morning coffee and saying ‘what storm’. I suspect lots are listening to the latest dire forecasts and deciding not to be fooled again. And one day this will happen, but it will be for real, and there will be a winter like the very severe post WWII winter, or the freak winter of the seventies with huge snowdrifts, and that will bring real suffering.
Crying wolf all the time, and it will have a cost one of these days. And as for thinking that UK Net Zero in power generation and energy use is somehow relevant to UK weather via the supposed Climate Crisis….! This craziness, along with similar delusions about race, gender and economics, is producing the greatest gap between people and political and media class the UK has experienced in many many decades. As they move to the next general election, the government determinedly clamps down on dissent and keeps on keeping on, the UK is heading for disaster that will dwarf its Net Zero disaster: the election by landslide of a bunch of authoritarian populist amateurs. Headed not by Farage, but by his opportunistic successor.
Or, I guess, the even greater disaster of a cancelled election.
I agree to an extent – but we will need an authoritarian approach to fix some of the issues – like sacking “x%” of the civil service, or perhaps “released to industry”
Spot on , I couldn’t have written it better myself. In the UK I can remember the huge storms of 87 and 89 watching a huge monkey puzzle tree blown down and parked vans blow on to there sides. I can remember the being in the office at work and hearing the slates being blown off the roof and the large glass windows visibly moving in the winds . I can remember the heat of summer of 1976 and the late 80s and 90s .i can also remember the winter of 1963 with snow on the ground in the South Coast for nearly 3 months
Is heavy rain called an “atmospheric river” as in the US? This current snow storm- I saw on a weather map, it was called a “snow bomb”. Oh, so scary!
Back in 2022 Liz Bentley, Chief Exec of the UK Royal Meteorological Society told BBC Radio 4 ‘World at One’ (17.2.2022)
“If you look back over the last, say, 50 years there is not a compelling trend that we have seen in the amount of storms we get in the UK”
“We are not seeing any significant changes or trends within the number of storms or maximum wind gusts over the last five decades.”
From my notes at the time.
“not by Farage”
You seem totally unable to stick to topic. This was a complaimt about a specific forecast segment, concerning storm Chandra. You wander over Farage, net zero, “cancelled elections” etc.
There really was a storm. The BBC reports:
“Firefighters in Devon and Somerset said they had rescued people from 25 vehicles that were stuck in floodwater on Tuesday morning.
Honiton and Sidmouth MP Richard Foord said there were reports of around 20 flooded properties across Devon and Cornwall – a figure expected to increase as river levels peak.
Oliver Kimber in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, said the lane he lives on was inundated with water.
“There was so much water and it was so fast that it just had nowhere else to go, and it was pushing it back up through the drains,” he told BBC Radio Cornwall.“
The MO knew this was coming. Should they have kept quiet?
Naming a normal wet and windy storm (Storm: 1- Rainy and windy conditions) is like naming a pigeon fart.
It’s ridiculous hype in an over hyper world.
The only hysteria on display here comes from Homewood himself. As ever desperate to get in a dig at the MetO.
He has obviously missed the fact that we do not get US style winter storms. Ours are a bit tamer as regards cold and snow, but we can only deal with what we get and warn of any hazards they bring at the top end of the scale.
That is what the MetO is charged to do as a public service.
And here you see it in action, though this is an extended/detailed presentation that they do on YT, and not one to be seen on the BBC.
This TV forecast presentation is merely telling viewers what they want to know, outlining likely hazards for those travelling/living in those areas and is aimed at the more weather literate viewer.
Who Homewood is not, as his posts on here have evidenced.
Stick yellow and orange warming triangles all over the place, for a bit of wind and rain..
… is OTT !
What colours do they use when something actually happens that isn’t run-of-the-mill UK weather. !
You missed the point. The point was that it was named.
Why do we name storms?The primary reason for naming storms is to provide a consistent and authoritative message about approaching severe weather. By using a single, recognisable name, communication through media partners and government agencies becomes clearer and more effective. This helps the public to better understand the risks, take appropriate action, and ultimately keep themselves, their property, and their businesses safe.
When is a storm named?In the UK, a storm is named when it is expected to cause disruption or damage significant enough to warrant an amber or red warning. This decision is based on the National Severe Weather Warnings service, which considers both the potential impact of the weather and the likelihood of those impacts occurring.
While storms are most often named due to the threat of strong winds, other weather types are also considered. For example, heavy rain that could lead to flooding, as advised by agencies such as the Environment Agency, SEPA, and Natural Resources Wales, or significant snowfall, may also prompt the naming of a storm. In this way, the system ensures that the public is alerted to a range of severe weather threats, not just wind.
Naming storms is a vital part of how the Met Office communicates severe weather risks. Through a careful and inclusive process, we ensure that each name is suitable, recognisable, and effective in helping people stay safe when severe weather approaches.
You name them simply because you’ve nothing better to do.
Alarmist nonsense.
Yes, Alarmist nonsense.
“By using a single, recognisable name..”
They just cause confusion these days, I’ve lost count; but we’ve had a lot more than 3 named storms, because they also use names assigned by the Irish, French, Portuguese and anybody else’s Weather Forecasters.
So if the weather forecaster is referring to a named storm you can’t tell what number it is ( if that mattered for any reason other than drumming up alarm) or if it will likely cause disruption for us or not.
Is it not the case that the storms are actually named by the weather service in whichever country the storm is expected to have maximum effect and that is why we get lots of varying names?
The 1987 storm wasn’t named, and even if it was would it have made a difference? Would naming it have prevented trees being destroyed across the country?
There was a storm across Scotland last year that blew a tree down onto my son’s empty parked car at work, did naming it have altered the outcome? Did naming it stop my son from going to work? Did naming it change people’s driving habits?
Why not simply use (n)(A-Z) where n is the date in yyyy-mm-dd format or just the year? Using human names anthropomorphises a natural phenomenon. Does it make any difference to the outcome?
Apparently it does ….
“The public are more likely to take action when a storm hits if it has a name, according to new research.
Scientists conducted the first ever analysis of how information about a named storm spread through the media. The study focused on Storm Doris, which crossed Ireland and the UK on 23 February 2017, causing significant damage and killing three people.
The research, carried out by the University of Reading, Met Office and Open University and published by Meteorological Applications, found that the storm was discussed widely by the national press and on Twitter.
This led to a change in public behaviour with fewer cars on the roads during the storm compared to a 2014 storm of similar strength that was not named.
Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez, meteorologist at the University of Reading and lead author of the work, said: “Names have been given to the most severe storms affecting the UK and Ireland by the Met Office and Met Éireann for the last four years to raise public awareness of their potential impact.
Our new research suggests naming storms does have the effect of raising awareness through increased media coverage, and can therefore change public behaviour and save lives.”
https://archive.reading.ac.uk/news-events/2019/May/pr799650.html
Bullshit.
This is uncalled for. If someone goes to a some considerable effort to give a well-reasoned response, then why do feel the need to show such a complete lack of respect? You do neither yourself nor the opinions to represent any favours.
As for the Met Office naming storms and this being just a bit of wind and rain – not true. Parts of the UK are dealing with severe flooding risk. Trucks have been blown off roads, while other roads have been blocked by incessant blizzards. This isn’t just an average wet and windy event and personally I’m comfortable being warned in advance by the Met Office, or any other reasonably accurate forecasting service.
I will concede to a degree however, that both the Met Office and the BBC tend to put too much of an AGW spin on their services. I would prefer if they were to just stick to weather forecasting!
Mate, I’ve been calling “bullshit” on nonsensical bureaucratic announcements since I had my first exposure to them in my conscripted military service in the 1960s.
I’ve never seen anything since that I’d recant as “bullshit” on the basis that such announcements were afterwards found to have some element of usefulness, substance or rationality.
With the climate capers, after reading the ClimateGate emails, anyone who didn’t call “bullshit” about the whole climate enterprise & conjecture needs serious self-examination of their reasons for tolerating & accepting this type of conspiratorial bullshit.
Won’t be long and they’ll be naming clouds.
‘outlining likely hazards’
It’s a *yellow* warning.
And we all know what to do with a yellow warning.
There’s an old British saying ‘Purple warning, new day dawning, yellow warning, who cares?’
“And we all know what to do with a yellow warning.”
Only if you are told about it.
Which is what the MetO do.
The MO lies. That’s their forte.
No, I can confirm they got this right. It is very wet and windy where I am and there is a lot of standing water. I was able to mitigate against the worst of this thanks to the MO’s timely warnings.
Just curious if you would have paid attention to the “MO’s timely warnings” if the storm hadn’t been named?
Good thing you could mitigate it- otherwise, it must have been horrific- wet and windy! OMG!
Apparently, according to the here omnipresent strativarius, we/you had better not take any notice as they “lie”.
Yes, I spent every working day when employed by them to lie to RAF pilots in the hope that they would fly into a Welsh mountain.
FFS
SO you’re the one who is cancelling the trains?
‘Writing on X, a spokesperson for Merseyrail said: “Latest service updates. Due to poor weather conditions, services on the Chester line face cancellations or alterations.” The train line said a tree is blocking the Chester line in the Bache area meaning the services between Chester and Hooton were suspended.’
If it wasn’t for the Met Office warnings, a train would unknowingly have hit that tree and lots of people would be dead.
So it never got wet and windy in the UK before they came up with the childish idea of naming perfectly normal weather patterns.
Next thing you know, they will be naming a slight drizzle or a morning mist.
Ok, how about you board an airplane to cross the Atlantic without the pilot having been briefed by Met and see if they “lie”?
“AI Overview
The UK Met Office is one of two globally designated World Area Forecast Centres (WAFC), providing worldwide aviation weather data to enhance safety and efficiency. It supplies global upper wind, temperature, and Significant Weather (SIGWX) forecasts, including turbulence and icing, to airlines for route planning, alongside issuing volcanic ash advisories.
Key services provided by the Met Office include:
World Area Forecast System (WAFS): Global, high-resolution data for flight planning and in-flight safety, accessible via the WAFC portal.Secure Aviation Data Information System (SADIS): Delivers operational meteorological (OPMET) data, such as METARs and TAFs, to Europe, Africa, and Asia.Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC): Monitors and advises on volcanic ash in the North East Atlantic and Iceland.Commercial/National Data Services: Provides tailored, high-resolution weather data to airlines and airports for operational decision-making.MAVIS (Met Office Aeronautical Visualisation Service): A new,,, advanced visualization platform for pilot briefings, replacing the former Aviation Briefing Service. These services are part of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) framework, ensuring that the aviation industry has access to accurate, standardized, and timely weather information globally.
Providing data is one thing and what this article is about is not that.
I answered all criticsims … knowing of course that the usual response would follow.
The simple answer is that naming storms works.
(above)
The MetO are in the business of communicating any dangers to the UK public and research has shown that awareness is increased if the storm is named.
Quite basic and sensible even if for some bizarre and no doubt ideological reason, it affends the usual crowd’s sensibilities.
Well, when all’s done, I suppose the main thing is that the storms are recognized using their preferred pronouns as appropriate for the particular weather event they’re currently identifying as?
Do you think they have “trans” storms.
How do they identify the gender?
What if the storm doesn’t like its assigned gender..
So many question!
So funny watching AB continuing to shill for an increasingly desperate Met Office
Notice the use of “below average” when if it’s above average they use the term “above normal”?
That ‘normal’ thing irks me. Also, an average is an average which is not ‘normal’. It is a statistic. Nobody lives there..
Agreed.
The terms are used deliberately to pull the wool over the eyes of fools who can’t think for themselves and the usual suspects who choose to obfuscate i.e. the met office, the BBC etc
I’m no statistician, but I always thought “normal” was a distribution an “average” was a parameter (the midpoint) of the normal distribution.
Right, but the word “normal” implies it’s OK, that it’s not abnormal, which implies bad things- like climate disaster on the way.
Oh No…… Yellow warnings.. AND.. Orange warmings….. shudder !!!
…. for a bit of rain and wind in the UK..
So funny !!
I think naming storms has been a good idea . Helps in the discourse – and when dealing with insurance companies
Names for storms other than hurricanes are meaningless, random and confusing. Just give it a date, time, location and duration if possible. Those are useful to aid in preparing, whether to batten the hatches or simply carry an umbrella. In the aftermath, just call it the mm/dd/yyyy storm.
Contrary to the views of our resident CAGW apologists, naming storms is part of the “Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD)“ strategy meant to alarm the populace about otherwise ordinary weather.
in the U.S., the Weather Channel (our weather & climate porn station) is the source for unofficial naming of every significant weather system. In the most recent winter storm, so-called “Fern”, there was snow and ice, accompanied by lingering cold. Some places got it worse than others. I believe that is called “winter,” which can sometimes be inconvenient. Since this was the first notable winter weather that I recall this season, I wondered what were the five storms that preceded Fern, assuming that they are named alphabetically as we do with hurricanes. The Weather Channel says the 2025-26 winter storms that preceded Winter Storm Fern were:
Huh? Never heard of them, clearly not major events. Can anyone in the U.S.say one of these names helped them prepare or that they afterward will forever associate that name with that storm?
To quote Stan and Ollie:
Wet and windy.
Big deal.
Ther BBC is reporting this:
In Scotland, operator Caledonian MacBrayne is reporting disruption on the vast majority of its routes, including services between:
The last few years I’ve been using CalMac ferries for holidays in the Highlands and Islands (in fact I’m hoping to book one today). So I follow them on X/Twitter, there are at least a dozen notices of disruption to a ferry service everyday even in flat calm. How many of that list are normal Calmac delays(most I’d say) and how many due to windy weather Chandra?
Not surprising as the Scottish Government own David MacBrayne of which CalMac are a subsiduary. These are some of the problems with replacement ferries for an ancient (35+years old in severaal cases):
The first of four new CalMac ferries being built in Turkey has been delayed again. 2 December 2025
The delivery date for MV Glen Rosa, the second of two dual-fuel CalMac ferries being built by the nationalised Ferguson shipyard, has been put back by up to nine months. 13 May 2025
CalMac is a typical government run nightmare.
You can see it as a general way of portraying local conditions extrapolated into an indication of something alarming.
It is alarmism at work. Paid work. In the contract of whomever pays.
Now, strong weather events are always by default interesting to meteorologists and they can’t be blamed for that.
That ‘storm’ is currently here where i live, in the north of Ireland and yes, it is rather windy or we could say a gale is blowing. I wouldnt have hyped it up into a ‘storm’.
But i won’t object too much. What REALLY irks me this linkage w Climate Change but again, it is in the contract. Who pays the piper calls the tune, right?
We don’t need a Met Office to tell us what to do.
Here in Britain we know what do do as soon as the wind gets above 10 mph, or there is some snow.
Cancel the trains.
Well, it is wet and windy.
What a waste of time. It is going to be dry and wet, it will be rainy or snowy, it will be clear and cloudy and we will likely get some wind, some of it stronger than the rest. Oh don’t forget Chandra the storm that hadn’t started yet but there is a possibility. I am dumber for having watched that.
As usual, the eco-alarmists, realizing that their climate crisis agenda is being increasingly disproved and ridiculed, have turned to any weather event, regardless, how trivial or commonplace, and tried to pass it off as guaranteed evidence of man-made climate change. A typical example is this week’s massive winter storm and below-normal temperatures that are affecting much of North America. The narrative has temporarily turned away from the prospect of shorter winters; instead, it claims that these wide fluctuations never occurred until excessive fossil fuel use turned the climate upside down so that we can expect any sort of weather anytime and anywhere. How convenient!
What is a :strom” ??
A misspelling of storm.
The purple haired globalist kneelers at the Met Office really wanted to call it Storm Mohammed but were too scared to do that.