Winter 2016 : Storm G H

It stands for Gertrude and Henry.

Gertrude was on January 29 and Henry was on February 1-2. 

Scotland and Northern England was the most impacted by Gertrude (school closure, travel disruptions) but we can still feel the strong wind in Manchester. 

Henry? Horrid Henry. Northeast of England was deeply impacted with flood, fallen trees and overturned vehicles. Here, our storm windows were rattling like crazy at night. The wind was so strong. I cant imagine how people at the impacted areas put up with stronger wind, more than 100 miles per hour!

Poor man! I am glad that he is okay.

I have seen a few people blown off their feet due to the gust (sudden rush of wind) around my campus. There were times that I have to hold onto the wall or a bollard or my friend during the gust. It was so sudden and you can easily lose control, most of the time I felt like falling to the ground. Well, maybe because my backpack was so heavy. 

I still remember the time when me and my friends were walking from one lecture venue to the other in a chill winter afternoon. As the wind picked up, we have to walk backward or sideways all the way to the building because walking towards the wind was hard.

I am going to miss Manchester for this. Never in my life, I walk backward to attend any lecture. 

This is a snippet from Euronews to show you how it was like when the wind picked up.

Great article on wind (here)

Winter 2015 : Storm D E F

In December, we welcomed Storm Desmond (5-6 Dec), Storm Eva (24 Dec) and Storm Frank (29-30 Dec). These are some of the headlines from the Manchester Evening News:

Although we missed the worst of Desmond (Cumbria was the worst hit), we still get strong wind (strong as in you feel the wind could possibly blew off your roof anytime) and torrential rain. Maybe we got stronger wind because we are on the hill.

Eva gave us Boxing Day flood in the Greater Manchester. We didnt aware about that. We initially planned to go out but then we decided to stay at home. Little that we know that areas around us were submerged and there is no way out from here. River Irwell bursts its banks, Salford and city centre were flooding, Rochdale was submerged. Luckily we live on a hill. Alhamdulillah. Me and the kids were on break so I didnt have to endure the flood in the city to go to the class. I just follow the update on the net while doing my essays. 

Frank, we missed him. But we still got the strong wind and rain. How people in the UK put up with these all this while...+_+ Storm after storm after storm banging our windows while I was doing my essays at night. The feeling is really unsettled.

Fall 2015 : Storm Clodagh

We were out since morning around Oldham. We noticed that the wind was picking up its speed starting from 1pm. We were in an open area between 1-2pm and the kids were having trouble to walk in the strong wind. I told my husband that we must be in the middle of Storm C that we didnt aware of. We didnt have a TV or read any news that day.  

When we came back later that day, I read online news and I found this:

We were in the middle of Storm Clodagh. And we were out (literally outside the car, in the open area), during the highest wind speed and gust. wow.

Fall 2015 : Storm Barney

We just came back from a takeaway. Nazran wants to send a weather report (on Storm Barney) to his grandparent when the gust blew and rendered him speechless.

But in the end, they seem to enjoy the gust!

Fall 2015 : Storm Names - Storm A B C

From the Met Office - 8 September 2015 - The Met Office and Met Éireann, the Irish Met Service are running a pilot project to name wind storms (click here for more).

So they have names. I mean, the storms.

It must be a frequent event that they require names to refer to each storm, I told my husband.

It is true, indeed!

We were bombarded with storm after storm after storm starting from November 2015. Although some missed the Greater Manchester, but we still get the gust (sudden rush of wind) and gale (strong and continuous wind), and of course, the torrential rain! 

From the Met Office

We received a lot of wind because we are living on the hill! 

In November alone, we welcomed Storm Abigail (12-13 Nov), Storm Barney (17-18 Nov) and Storm Clodagh (29 Nov). These are some of the headlines from the Manchester Evening News: