On Jan 3, 9:58*am, "Ken Cook" wrote:
Alex Stephens" *wrote in message

...

Strongest winds i have ever seen, currently battering Lanarkshire.
Think these must be the strongest winds in the central lowlands since
the Glasgow hurricane in 1968.
Top 10 minute mean wind speed at my site is 63mph, and highest gust so
far is an astounding 104mph. At least 3 other gusts over 90mph, and
regularly over 80mph.
There will undoubtedly be no end of damage. Surprised we still have a
roof! Many slates ripped off roofs in my street, and a report from a
friend in Motherwell of a street of houses with at least 2 gable ends
down.
Ongoing.

Hi, Alex,
Can't begin to compete with that!
Max gust here 58KT (67mph) and highest 10 min 43KT(force 9).
Almost force 11 with you!!
Good luck to you all there and good to hear from you again,
Best wishes,
Ken
Copley, Teesdale

Thanks Ken, and very nice to hear from you too.
Storm abaiting pretty fast now, already down to a comfortable F6. The
highest gust was 104mph, just after 8am. Another clocked in at 96mph
and i was looking at the anemometer reading at the time of this with
gritted teeth as the whole house shuddered and windows bent inward by
an alarming degree. Hard to believe the whole roof didn't take off.
Was a bit like a scene from the wizzard of oz lol. Not ventured out
yet, but I can see a few trees completely uprooted from the house and
the greenhouse is a twisted wreck. People's gardens are littered with
rubbish, smashed slates, broken fences, guttering and flashing.
The winds averaged above 50 mph for two hours from 7.20am to 9.30am.
At one point i remember watching the anemometer reading and being
amazed that it stayed in the 70-90mph zone for many minutes. I have
never seen anything like it and i can hardly believe that the peak
mean was only 63mph as it felt and looked as though it was in the high
seventies. The noise was terrifying. This was around 8am. There was
another 5 - 10 minute period with similar incredibly loud winds just
before 9am.
Plenty of good data from this storm for sting jet analysis. Classic
example.
Not sure how other areas are doing, apart from reports on facebook.
But most of the central lowlands seems to have been hammered with the
sting jet and the central lowlands funnel combining. Fortunate indeed
that it's a bank holiday in Scotland and there wasn't really a rush
hour coinciding with these conditions.
Looks like this day off will be spent disposing of a former greenhouse
for me.

alex