Are storms in the UK (or anywhere else on the planet) really getting more extreme?
Could it be that the language used by forecasters and the media is simply fooling us into thinking they are?
Could it be that as a society we have become less resilient to bad weather?
Here in Cornwall, we’ve recently experienced storm Ciarán. Its arrival was forecast well in advance. Warnings had been issued. The media told us to be prepared. Ciarán was going to be a nasty piece of work.
The rain arrived on Wednesday 1st November. By Thursday morning a couple of inches had fallen. Then the winds hit.
Nare Point just down the road from us by the entrance to the Helford River recorded a 66 knot gust. That’s force 12, a hurricane.
Trees came down, roads flooded, and the power went out.
Across the Channel on the island of Jersey, a localised ‘tornado’ ripped roofing away, blew down walls and destroyed cars.
Unprecedented some said. The strongest winds to hit the British Isles for 70 years said others.
That storm Ciarán caused distress and loss to a significant number of people is not in doubt. But in the scheme of things it wasn’t an ‘historic’ event. In a few months most folks will have forgotten about it.
