Memorable storms...

[TheGreenGoblin]

[ian16th]

I slept through this one!

I was in the Sheperds Bush Kensington Hilton Hotel, I woke up to chaos.

[Woody]

I had a great idea let’s take a family trip to Florida in October as the hurricane season will be over and to be fair apart from Hurricane Sandy I was right

[TheGreenGoblin]

I slept through this one!

I was in the Sheperds Bush Kensington Hilton Hotel, I woke up to chaos.

Was living in Cardiff and twas a sunny morning as we looked at scenes of mayhem on the TV from the south of England.

[TheGreenGoblin]

That Queen's Birthday Storm story is tough to watch but so well produced and a tribute to the courage of so many people.

[CharlieOneSix]

I was in Bournemouth staying a few days with my Mum during the '87 storm. It was chaos in the morning with many roofs torn off buildings on the coastline not far from her bungalow. I was supposed to drive to London that morning but I stayed put for a couple of days as there were so many blocked roads.

A year or so earlier I'd had lunch with Michael Fish - of no, there won't be a hurricane fame - in the Treetops Hotel, Aberdeen, when he came up to give a talk. An interesting and pleasant guy. For the life of me I can't remember who he gave the talk to or how I came to have lunch with him. Senility rules!

[Wodrick]

I slept through this one!

I was in the Sheperds Bush Kensington Hilton Hotel, I woke up to chaos.

I didn't, I was in the Alton House Hotel while at QLA on a 707 Avionics course. The furniture on the roof terrace being flung around kept me awake.
Again fought my way through chaos to the training school, just me and the instructor turned up.
Had to go the back way to avoid the fallen trees. (via Golden Pot ?)
as it was a Friday was sent home, by the time I got to Oxford the destruction was minimal.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Meanwhile in 2020...

Philippine officials have ordered evacuation of thousands of residents in the southern part of the main Luzon island as a category-5 storm that is the world’s strongest this year approaches.

Typhoon Goni, with 215km/h (133 mph) sustained winds and gusts of up to 265km/h (164 mph), will make landfall on Sunday as the strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines since Haiyan, which killed more than 6,300 people in 2013.

Pre-emptive evacuations have started in coastal and landslide-prone communities in the provinces of Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur, while Albay provincial government would order residents in risky areas to leave their homes, Gremil Naz, a local disaster official, told DZBB radio station. “The strength of this typhoon is no joke.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... gest-storm

[larsssnowpharter]

Storms, typhoons, hurricanes. Been through a few memorable ones. In order:

1. Sep 1969: Found me as crew on the charter yacht Querida, a converted caique out of Malta. We were hit by a gregale. Waves not that high but you couldn't tell where the spray and rain were separated. There lines over the stern but we're still making 10 knots on bare poles. Loads of damage including a broken boom.

2. Mid 70s, Belize. Hurricane. My shelter was in the pump Room of the swimming pool. Call from ops for assistance in opening their blast door. Water being blown out of the pool. Power lines flashing like in the movies. Tree blocking door to Ops. Hiring flooded by surge. Watched Army WO going through inventory on march out as gold rimmed cup floated down gutter.

3. Alps. Early 80s. We had a nice villa at about 1000 metres in a valley overlooking one of the lakes. Huge storm ricocheted around the valley. High winds. Trees falling around the house. Lightning strikes blowing out electrical circuits. Smell of ozone. Family in cellar. Scary.

4. About 100 knots SW of Guam on the good ship Y Knot. Hit by Typhoon. Knocked over 3 or 4 times. Broken arm and damaged leg. Lost mast.

5. Around 10 years ago. Davao. We were lucky. Typhoon hit about 100 km north of us. Over 3000 dead. Luckily a largely agricultural area. Took truck with chainsaw and relief supplies to Senora Larss' old place there. Two days to get through. Huge devastation and stink from rotting bodies. Not nice.

Respect nature.

[bob2s]

The 1998 Sydney to Hobart was a memorable storm,especially for those that took part as well as those that were involved in rescuing competitor's.

[TheGreenGoblin]

A 1998 Sydney race was punctuated by extraordinary weather and rescues as bob2's compeling video shows.

This video of a tornadic (supecell/mesocyclonic) waterspout almost hitting the yacht Nicolette in 2001 in the 2001 race sums up the kind of weather that can spring up in those southern waters.

The south coast tornado was a tornadic waterspout spawned by a supercell thunderstorm off the south coast of New South Wales on 26 December 2001, during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. The tornado passed very close to the yacht Nicorette II, which was severely damaged but able to complete the race with a spare mainsail. Nicorette recorded wind speeds of close to 100 knots (120 mph; 190 km/h; 51 m/s) (making the tornado at least F2 on the Fujita scale) and was struck by hail the size of golf balls. According to the boat's meteorologist, the tornado began with a diameter of around 50 meters (160 feet), but grew in size until it was 500 meters (1,600 feet) across. The waterspout proceeded to strike several other boats with weaker winds. The tornado should not be confused with the severe storm that wrought havoc on the race in 1998.

[TheGreenGoblin]

From the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race archives...

David Key was winched from the police helicopter 400 times on rescue missions. He tells Silvester what happened when he was lowered into 30 metre waves in the fatal 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and how close the helicopter came to crashing through lack of fuel. In 2009 he was lowered into Black Saturday then released from the wire when the helicopter started to lose altitude. Believing he was going to die he and the people he was sent to rescue were guided out by the chopper above.

https://omny.fm/shows/naked-city/the-hero-above

[CremeEgg]

Had to go the back way to avoid the fallen trees. (via Golden Pot ?)

Went past my old flying ground of QLA a month or so ago - The Golden Pot now a Turkish restaurant. In spite of its proximity to QLA I've never been in always preferring The Royal Oak in Lasham itself - a short stagger back to the bunkhouse; or on many occasions partaking of copious quantities of Scotch and haggis in the flying instructors caravan.

[ian16th]

A favourite port in a storm at Marham has apparently suffered a similar fate.

Used to be a nice pub. Vastly superior to The Bell, in Marham village.

[ricardian]

A busy weekend in Orkney!
Stronsay harbour yesterday (Saturday)
The sailing vessel on the left is the "Alamotte" which belongs to my 84 year old neighbour. I sent him the photograph (taken by our retired island GP) whereupon he dropped everything and dashed down to the harbour to put on extra fenders & mooring ropes.
Shipping containers lost in the Pentland Firth. The number of lost containers is now 33 and some have have been washed up on the island of Hoy.
And now it is being reported that a vessel in Scapa Flow is dragging its anchor so the Orkney Islands Harbour authority's new tugs have been despatched to assist.

[Hydromet]

Hope that sailing boat is OK, it's a beautiful looking boat. I believe I saw it when I was there a couple of years ago.