Be careful!

A couple of days ago I wrote about the sounds I could hear as I was writing one evening, coming through the open window on a calm spring evening. There aren’t any sounds coming through the open window this evening because it isn’t open, it’s firmly shut against the onslaught of Storm Noa which is raging up our road and battering itself against our house. Actually, it’s not just our road which is suffering, south-west England and the south coast of Wales is getting a battering.

The Meteorological Office has issued a yellow weather warning – this means the weather could cause you some difficulty, so be careful (it’s worded more formally than that, but that’s it in essence) An amber weather warning is more serious – there’s an increased likelihood of impacts from severe weather, with potential disruption. Most severe and dangerous is a red warning,  stay safe, take care, perilous conditions abound. So Storm Noa is yellow – he’s Noa not Noah because he was named by the French Meteorological office, Météo-France and he’s riding in on 70 mph winds.

So what has Noa been up to so far? Well,  earlier this afternoon  over 260 properties in Devon were without power, and more than 700 homes were apparently without power in the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall. Trees are down and roads were blocked, and there has been some damage to buildings. Here in Somerset it’s jolly blowy and Noa is being somewhat rumbunctuous but I haven’t heard any clatters or crashes or seen any bits of tree or fence cartwheeling down the road, or any dustbin lids flying past. It was low tide two hours ago, and the next high tide isn’t until just before midnight and maybe Storm Noa will have settled down by then. We’re not planning to go anywhere, so we’ll be safe and snug whatever he gets up to!