The Storm

Most of the borough of Medway is just sufficiently inland to have avoided most if not all of storm Xaver's effects. A few places in Rochester (Esplanade area) and Strood (Canal Road and Knights Road areas, and inland a distance from there) were evacuated, and flooding was reported before the waters receded during Friday morning.

I stayed up through much of the first night, monitoring the situation, using social media to disseminate useful information and contact details, and filtering out unnecessary material, so that it was as lean yet valuable as I could make it, without worrying people unnecessarily with blow-by-blow accounts such as those from more coastal areas that didn't apply to us here in Medway. I think (and hope) that was the best approach...

Our biggest issue was the extremely powerful wind, which made it difficult to stang up. even hours before it was all due to kick-off in earnest. I was surprised when returning from a shopping trip much earlier in the day, just how much the wind had built up during the half-hour I was indoors in the Pentagon Centre.

This short news video gives an admittedly all too brief taste of what happened in various parts of Europe and the east coast of Britain, but is still useful to gain an idea of what it was like – nowhere near as bad as some extreme weather we have seen around the globe in recent years, but bad enough nonetheless...

The Snow Arrives – 18 January 2013

The forecasts have been essentially correct, although where I am and hereabouts for a fair distance it has not been at all serious, at least not so far. It started at precisely 11 am today, very light at first, then cranking up a gear a bit later.

Kent's gritters have been out already, in advance, gritting primary and (I believe) secondary routes, so we here are as well prepared as anyone can reasonably expect to be, at least on those routes.

This weather is expected to continue, with more snow falling, throughout the coming weekend. As it is really cold outdoors (as I can attest from when I was outside at 11 am when it all started) so it will no doubt be distinctly dodgy on some lesser roads and the footpaths by Monday morning.

Here's a pic of the Close where I live in Chatham, taken just minutes before I wrote this post...

And now for the weather in Scotland

I'm sure I've seen the BBC's new weatherman somewhere before.

Here's an excerpt (all that is available to embed here)...


He certainly enjoyed his one minute of fame in this new job, even though there's still little sign of any "reign" for himself...

Solar Activity

A warning of "space weather" likely to affect our planet to some degree over the next couple of days (Thursday and Friday). It's nothing particularly serious, but useful to know about in advance...