Effects of Storm Lilian continue to be felt in parts of Wales

Today’s Met Office weather warnings for wind and rain have both now expired, but the effects of Storm Lilian continue to be felt in parts of Wales, northern England and Scotland.

Wind gusts topped 70mph in the early hours of Friday morning and two flood alerts remain in place on Friday afternoon for the Carmarthenshire coast and North Gower Coast.

On Friday morning scaffolding was blown over in Rhyl town centre, and power cuts were also reported across north Wales.

A North Wales Police statement said: “We’re receiving numerous reports of fallen trees and branches on roads due to high winds – we advise you to take extra care on your journey today. We’ve made highways departments aware, and they will be dealing as soon as they are able to.”

Thursday’s yellow alert for wind prompted the cancellation of a New Order gig in Cardiff Bay on “health and safety grounds”.

Season

Storm Lilian is the 12th named storm of the season and the first time the letter L has been used for the name.

Storm season, which runs from the start of September to the end of the following August, has only reached K twice since the Met Office began naming storms in 2015.

In April, Kathleen was the second K-named storm, following Storm Katie in March 2016.

Storm Lilian is named after Anglo-Irish journalist and pioneering aviator Lillian Bland, who was the first woman in Ireland to build and fly an aircraft, according to Met Eireann.

The Met Office’s list of storm names is shared with Met Eireann in Ireland and KNMI, the Dutch national weather forecasting service.

There were only two storms during last year’s season, which ran from September 2022 to August 2023, which made it only as far as the letter B, with Storm Betty in August.

By contrast, this year’s season has recorded Storm Agnes in September 2023; Babet in October; Ciaran and Debi in November; Elin, Fergus and Gerrit in December; Henk, Isha and Jocelyn in January 2024; Kathleen in April; and now Lilian in August.

Not all of the alphabet is used when naming storms.

The letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are omitted, in line with convention established by the US National Hurricane Centre.

It means the storm names still available for the current season, which ends next week, are Minnie, Nicholas, Olga, Piet, Regina, Stuart, Tamiko, Vincent and Walid.

The UK occasionally experiences a storm that has been named by another country because of where it was first detected.

For example, in December 2023 Northern Ireland was hit by strong winds that were part of Storm Pia, named by the Danish Met Office.

In the Met Office list of storm names for 2023/24, the letter P has been assigned the name Piet.