On 14/05/13 18:24, Graham Easterling wrote:

I don't think I've ever known calm to gale force conditions happen so quickly.


If you use your imagination it looks a bit like the eye of a hurricane
passing over the SW peninsula on satellite imagery. I guess the rapid
increase in wind speed was from the passage of the eye as the low centre
tracked across you to the rain and strong winds on the back side of the
low, possibly enhanced by a sting jet.

I'm curious as to how much more potent (if at all) this low would have
been had it developed in the winter with more baroclinic energy to feed off.