My Hometown Due To Be Hit With High Winds, Echoes of 1987 (A personal report)

Last night was turning into a bust, so I had a little nap about five o'clock. Woke up, and the wind had demolished some of the fencing around our balcony.

Once again my video refuses to actually display when I preveiw, so what I am going to do is post this...

www.youtube.com...

Its on there, under "Wind smashed up me trellis fence!"

Its gotten pretty wild, but the rain has let up, and we are left with just the wind. Luckily, it appears as if our power supplies have not been affected in my area, but I am hearing that other locations in the South of England are not so lucky in that respect.

reply to post by TrueBrit


I am off to work. I will have my camera with me, and I will keep snapping and recording things that take my eye regarding this weather. I am reliably informed by my mother, that these winds we are getting are every bit as strong as we got in 87.

reply to post by TrueBrit


South London was very gusty at 5.30 - 6 a.m. - woke me up - one of the main radio broadcasters has some good photos from listeners sent in :

www.lbc.co.uk...

The crane almost snapped completely in two , but the branch down in Leicester square is a bit comical. Not going to make light of the rest though , it was relentless as it passed overhead.

Seen some damage across the street. Both the Indian place across the street, and the fish bar down the way, appear to be in the process of shedding their signage. In other news, there must be a panda about somewhere because we have...



Thats right, any knights hanging around should watch their six, because we have rainbow action (apologies for the blatant internetism!!). Its not all over yet though, because we still have skies looking like this...



Heh! Yes, the Indian place's signage was hanging by a fraying electrical cord. I got up on a ladder, while some of the fellas who work there pushed the sign up a bit, and cable tied the living bejesus out of it, to isolate its movement a little, and make it safe until the electrician could come out and service it. Luckily enough we did not have long to wait until they arrived.



I also had to go and rescue the remains of the fish shops "Pukka Pies" sign, which was lying collapsed on the pavement, in bits, and represented a significant risk of becoming dangerous if the wind picks up again. I moved the remains to our shop, and delivered a hand written note through the letter flap of the chip shop, so hopefully the fellow who runs it will get that and not be upset!

I do not know how to describe the sensations that I am experiencing at this time. It appears as though the main event would seem to be over, but whether it is the pressure changes, or the look of the clouds that are still scudding across the sky at a rate of knots, I cannot help but feel as if we might get a few more powerful gusts before the day is out.

The sky keeps changing from dark to light, cloudy to sunny. Its pretty manic in the upper atmosphere. Down on the ground, we have had only the occasional gust in the last half hour though.

Heard some bad news from slightly further afield. Seems as two people have lost their lives by having trees fall on them in this storm. Tragic. While I have always found myself able to appreciate the beauty of natures most ugly moments, it is healthy to remember that these things that I find so majestic and powerful, are capable of causing fatalities.

www.bbc.co.uk...

This article also suggests that the storm is "pretty much over", so I suppose thats the lot in terms of the active situation part of this thread. Over the next few days, I suppose I will have a look around the local area, see if there has been any significant damage in the local paper news, and if there has I will go and have a look at the affected areas, and take visual records of it.

The manager of the chip shop has just come down to collect the remains of his signage. Seemed happy that someone had bothered to move it, so thats a plus.

reply to post by TrueBrit


Lots of cleanup at the moment. Just talked to our neighbour. They lost four fence panels, all blown out. We're still getting gusts of wind howling past the house. And my parents just called to say that the kennels that they were hoping to drop their dogs off at this afternoon is now cut off due to fallen trees.

Glad to see you didn't get blown off to Oz with Toto, you crazy wanker.

Maybe next time you should consider tying a rope around your waist and connecting it to a cement building (or a really fat politician) before running out and documenting this stuff ?!


... and I thought we Canucks were off our rockers when it came to battling stormfronts...

reply to post by CranialSponge


Well, I took several precautions short of doing that, and as you can tell, did not end up wedged through a building with my skull broken open!

The thing is, I am the sort to go walking in a forty mile an hour blizzard, just to have a pint of ale with a friend in town. I need literally only the barest provocation to step out of doors when the weather gets messy. Rain, wind, hail, snow. Its all gravy! I have been that way for an awfully long time, and I have grown accustomed to keeping myself safe in all weathers.

Believe you me, I know the dangers of being out when the weather is doing its best to frag everything in sight, and I make a point of ensuring that I take measures to offset that risk.

I have discovered something which might be of interest to those who appreciate the odd little details of life. When we came down to open the shop up this morning, the sun was shining strongly, and illuminated the state of the shop window, which appeared to be covered in a dusty looking substance...



Now, whatever this stuff is, it was not there before the storm hit, so one must assume that it was the storm which placed it there. I wiped at it, to see if it would come off without some sort of detergent assistance, and it streaked, like this:



This was a surprise to me, because as I mentioned, the substance appeared to be dusty particulate, rather than greasy, and yet there it was. A greasy substance then, which appears to be full of particles of something or another. I decided a closer inspection was in order, so I picked up a jewelers eyeglass ...



And observed the window through it. Sure enough, it revealed that whatever the greasy component may have been, there were several different sizes and colours of particles represented. Most of them appeared to be whitish in colour, but some appeared to be a light brown. I did my best to take a photograph of this, by placing the eyeglass over the camera lens, and this was the resulting shot:



Zooming this image a bit will reveal that not all the specks are actually white by the way. I know it is not plain from the un-zoomed image I have posted, but perhaps members would care to zoom for themselves, if indeed that proves possible.

I was somewhat interested by all of this, so I thought to myself that it might be an idea to check if other shops and buildings along my road had a similar coating, and lo and behold, the stuff is everywhere. Now then, we come to a point where some speculation is in order. I suggest that it is possible that some of these white specks will be salt, some will be silica, and the brown specks, I think, could be oil, which would explain the greasiness of the residue on the window.

This storm after all, was born in a crucible which is located not all that far from the BP Deep Water Horizon fiasco's origin point, so is it possible that the greasy residue is gulf oil, carried by the storm across the open water, and plastered all over my neighborhood?

Just a thought. I am going to contact the environment agency, and ask them about the possible causes of this greasy substance in any case. I have heard of many cases where storms have left dust, sand, mud, and a plethora of other coatings on things they have passed over, but this particular residue? Any thoughts people?

reply to post by TrueBrit


The stuff on the windows, maybe that's worth a new thread (copy and paste the post with the pics?). You now have my interest until you solve the mystery of the mysterious mystery specks.

The environment agency should be able to run tests on it for you. Failing that and perhaps a bit more 'independent' shall we say, would be to take some to your local uni for science students to run tests on....they love this sort of stuff!

Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by angelchemuel


Well I called the Environment Agency, and the fellow there merely informed me that he, and other people in the office he works in, had not heard of any such residue being reported. This really is not much of a shock to me, since it is only the fact that I am a bit anal when it comes to details, that meant I was in a position to even see the muck, let alone ruminate on its origins. Most people would have just said "bloody hell, that looks like crap... pass me a rag and the spray cleaner!" even if they had spotted it I think, especially in a business premises.

Perhaps I ought to call back and ask them if they would like me to arrange for a sample to be sent to them? I think they are more concerned with fulfilling the barest requirements set by government at the moment, due to the fact that the Environment Agency have had their staff numbers reduced by 1,700 in the last little while. Would they even have the resources and time right now to investigate the source of this apparently harmless stuff, in the midst of all the storm bought chaos?

reply to post by TrueBrit

Where's your nearest Uni? Or even secondary school, I'm sure even a chemistry or biology teacher wouldn't mind sticking it under a microscope or running tests.

I totally agree with what you said about folk in general.....so keep at it...it only takes one with determination...it might be nothing at the end of the day, but if you do nothing both you and us members here will be asking questions about it for a long time.

Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by Aleister


Regarding a new thread, I have contacted a Mod to ask them whether they think it ought to be handled in a separate thread. Because of some initial concern over the validity of THIS thread, bearing in mind all the other existing threads which popped up on the subject of the passage of this storm, I thought it would be sensible to find out what the lay of the land is before creating a new thread.

Good find, I had to go pick a friend up from town yesterday who was in a bit of a state, (one to many in the local pub) when I got in the car the windscreen was filthy and was a complete bugger to get clean it just kept streaking and smearing, I dont use screan wash in my car I put a drop of a well known washing up liquid in there Im wondering if this is the same stuff you have on your shop, my partner is out today with the car I will investigate when she gets back, we have had large balls of palm oil wash up on our shores in Devon recently, very curious thanks for sharing

reply to post by angelchemuel


Well, our local University is Southend Campus, part of the University of Essex. However, they do not do any significant chemistry courses, let alone ones which might cross the rubicon between chemistry and ecological concerns like the possible presence of a petrochemical residue all over the place.

I will act on this however. Of that you can be sure. When my colleagues return from town and relieve me, I am going to go to the chemists, and see if they have any sterile swabs, and I am going to take a sample, place it in a ziplock bag, and then at least I will have something I can send SOMEWHERE, even if it takes me a bit to find the right people to send it to.

I am far too much intrigued by all this to merely let it fall to the wayside and go unsolved.

reply to post by dam00


Interesting. If you can, please take some pictures so that we can compare them! See, this is how you KNOW I am a geek. This is the most excited I have ever been outside a bedroom, or a rock festival. Comparisons, samples, PARTICULATES OF AN UNKNOWN ORIGIN!!!!!

Ahem. Anyway, let me know what you discover!

reply to post by TrueBrit

Excellent! try taking a sample on a piece of sellotape too....bit like taking a fingerprint.
Going to contact my daughter who's studying animal biology at Uni Glos....she might be able to help.
Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by TrueBrit


Nice that people are so interested in this - it may be nothing or may be something to write home about. Does anyone on your street have a microscope that you can get a closer look at the stuff? And instead of one swab, maybe take half a dozen or more so you have backup.

The Realm of Cabbages and Kings.