h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's blowing a gale out there. I checked that everything loose is weighted down. The worst wind is expected in the North where last night they warned of gusts up to 120 kph. Not so bad in Dublin but the walk to work should be interesting.

we have all sorts of hurricane warnings here. The north of Germany is going to take a huge hit, apparently.

I hope you manage to stay on your feet walking to work!

Have you got an anchor?

Lends Gnomon an anchor.

The tiny pot plant on the table on our deck out the front didn't budge, but the standard box trees in their very heavy pots were knocked over. I've left them standing by the hedge where I think they'll be safe.

Mrs G kindly gave me a lift to the tram, so I was spared the first 20-minute walk. The second walk, of 15-minutes, wasn't so bad as the wind is never as bad in town as it is up in the hills.

Stay safe

We have a tidal surge warning, along with the high winds this is the same combination which caused the floods in 1953. However our sea defences are much better now. Unfortunately, last week, a lot of the seals had pups at Donna Nook, and there are fears the pups will all be washed away

SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) have chosen to name he storm Sven. The weather forecast ssay Sven will reach south west Sweden tonight and continue east-north-east, bringing snow tommorrow - up to 30 cm!

When I was a child I hated windy nights, because one of the big windows in our house blew in one night. I wasn't in the room at the time, but I was told about it, and I always worried it would happen again.

Nowadays, the windows are much stronger and feel much more secure.

When I put the greenhouse up first, it had real glass panes, and one of them was blown out one night. I found it some distance away, standing straight up, dug down about 6 inches into the lawn. After that, I removed all the glass and replaced it with polycarbonate panels which won't do anybody any harm.

A client of my brother-in-law (who is an accountant) had a trampoline in his garden and the wind lifted it up, carried it over the wall and onto his neighbour's Mercedes. Ouch!

scary tales indeed.

the storm is so bad it has a name? I've been putting off going out, but I really should go visit Mum

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All storms have names these days, at least in Germany they do. There was talk on it in someone's journal. They're calling it Xaver here.

I thought the last big storm was called Christian. How did they get from C to X so quickly?

Was going to post here early, as we were 'a bit windy', but really it didn't sound anything out of the ordinary.... however, the winds started picking up here now and if it gets much more, I think I might have to dash out onto teh balcony again and move the fold-up chairs back inside They're heavy enough to damage the window/door I think, were they to get picked up by a gust...

The wind howled down my chimneys from early this morning and blew a branch off the very tall and beautiful tree we have in the square. Then there was some squally rain. Now bright sunshine with light breeze. Wish I'd done some washing this morning.
I remember the floods of 53. Some of my older cousins were up to their waists in water trying to save people on Canvey island. Hope tou're right that the defences are improved.

The wind has died down here now. It's moved on to Northern Europe.

Stay safe, everyone. Seven or more time zones away, we have had snow. Not a lot, but precipitation is practically worshiped in the high desert.

apparently it's hitting the north of Germany worse than had been predicted. Just a bit gusty here ... so far.

The Schleswig Holstein problem.

So, the winds in Ireland reached 130kph, but in Britain they had speeds of 220kph. That's 140 mph for all you imperial and colonial types.

Two people killed and 10,000 homes evacuated. Quite a storm.