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Wind speeds top 90mph as Storm Darragh lashes Wales

07 Dec 2024 4 minute read
Fallen trees on the A470 between Nant-ddu & Llwyn-on. Credit: Traffic Wales

Gusts of more than 90mph have been recorded in Wales as Storm Darragh sweeps across the country.

The Met Office has confirmed that wind speeds of up to 93mph were recorded overnight in Capel Curig in north Wales, with 92mph in Aberdaron on the Llyn Peninsula.

Winds in other parts of Wales topped 80mph, while gusts of up to 77mph were recorded in Northern Ireland and south-west England, the forecaster said.

Tom Morgan of the Met Office said that as of 7am the storm was at its peak, but higher wind speed totals are “possible” later in the morning.

The centre of the storm, meaning winds are calmer, was across north-east England.

Thousands of people in Wales, Northern Ireland and England were left without power.

Power cuts

The Energy Networks Association said around 86,000 homes were without power as of 9am.

A spokesperson said around 385,000 customers were reconnected overnight, with more than 1,000 engineers ready to be deployed.

National Grid said that as of 8am more than 55,000 customers were off supply across the South West of England, south Wales and the west Midlands due to Storm Darragh. It said the majority of these were in Wales.

National Highways said both the Prince of Wales Bridge, M4 and the Severn Bridge, M48, were closed due to strong winds.

Network Rail Wales said owing to a fallen tree, all train services on the North Wales Coast Line are suspended until further notice.

‘Superb effort’

A Cardiff resident described a “superb effort” from the council that cleared a tree that fell during Storm Darragh, breaking windows and damaging the wall around a property.

Stuart Cox, 64, told the PA news agency that an approximately 50ft mature tree on Cathedral Road in the Welsh capital fell into his next door neighbour’s garden in the early hours of Saturday.

“It broke one window two doors down and destroyed next door’s gate. The only damage to ours was the front wall was forced sideways, making the wall unstable and unable to shut the gate,” the accountant said.

“The council teams moved to us, after clearing other trees, around 5.30am and were all done by 8am. Superb effort.”

The Met Office issued the red weather warning – the most serious type – on Friday for wind, meaning dangerous weather is expected and people are urged to take action to keep themselves and others safe.

The warning, which has led to the cancellation of events including Christmas attractions, is in place from 3am to 11am on Saturday.

Damaging winds

It warned of “damaging winds” with gusts of 90mph possible over the coasts and hills of West and South Wales.

Forecasters say the strongest winds will begin to ease from late morning.

A separate amber warning covering a larger stretch of the west coast of the UK, stretching from southern Scotland to Cornwall, and Northern Ireland is in place from 1am until 9pm.

Flying debris and falling trees could pose a risk to life while large waves and beach material could be thrown on to coastal roads and seafronts.

There could also be damage to buildings and homes, with roofs blown off and power lines brought down, as well as power cuts affecting other services such as mobile phone coverage.

Storm Darragh is also expected to bring heavy rain over the weekend, with National Resources Wales issuing 17 flood warnings and close to 50 flood alerts.


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Frank
Frank
11 days ago

Doesn’t this Storm Darragh know there is a 20mph limit in force in Cymru? Tut tut tut!!

Ernie The Smallholder
Ernie The Smallholder
11 days ago

The frightening thing is these storms are becoming more frequent and more violent. There is real damage done to the world’s climate and we need to act now to put this right. Climate change is here affecting our lives. We must stop burning fossil fuels: oil, petrol, diesel. Reduce air travel to a minimum. Convert to electric transport within 5 years. Electric Trains (TGV style) and electric buses must become the main means of travel. Heating our homes and Work: Heat Pumps installation in houses must replace old gas and oil systems. All Electricity to be generated from Wind, Solar,… Read more »

Ap Kenneth
Ap Kenneth
11 days ago

Storms are also carrying upto 20% more rain. This is a major problem with all the built infrastructure and the lack of room for rivers to flood.
I agree that Nuclear will not be an answer but mainly as they take too long to be built it just looks like the build time cannot be ramped up, eg Hinckley Point.
The next technology that we need to adopt on a large scale is tidal, the last round of renewable contracts included three small projects and this along with wind, solar and batteries will give us energy security.

John Ellis
John Ellis
11 days ago
Reply to  Ap Kenneth

This one actually seems, in our area at least, to have carried less rain with it than was the case with ‘storm Bert’ just a week or two back.

Glen
Glen
11 days ago

The only real storm of the winter, the rest were just low pressure systems given fancy names.

David
David
11 days ago

There would be less people being without power if all electric pylons & poles cables were underground.

John Ellis
John Ellis
11 days ago
Reply to  David

True enough – but just think what that would do to your electricity bill!

John Ellis
John Ellis
11 days ago

‘Forecasters say the strongest winds will begin to ease from late morning.’ Well, the forecasters are wrong, at least as far as my bit of Dyffryn Clwyd is concerned. Here, at 3:15 pm, the gales haven’t so far abated significantly from what they were earlier this morning. We seem to have had quite a succession of gales recently – an inevitable consequence of climate change, I presume – but today’s blast is the worst that I can recall since an awful one which I remember when I was living in north Radnorshire, back in the mid-1970s. At least it’ll be… Read more »

Last edited 11 days ago by John Ellis

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