Windstorm Friedhelm is located to the west of extreme southwest Norway. The system is expected to bring strong and potentially damaging winds to southern Norway, Denmark, and northern Germany, accompanied by heavy snowfall in eastern Norway.
On Thursday, Friedhelm brought peak gusts across Scotland and northern England of 115km/hr in Dundee at 12:20 UTC, 119km/hr at Prestwick Airport at 14:50 UTC, 31 m/s 112km/hr in Glasgow at 13:50 UTC and Carlisle at 11:20 UTC. Observed peak gusts are comparable to Windstorm Elaine, which impacted the region in 2008. Friedhelm also brought heavy rain to Scotland and northeast England, with flood warnings issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Environment Agency.
In Scotland at the peak of the storm, preliminary reports indicate that close to 60,000 lost power in central and southern Scotland, as trees and other debris fell onto power lines and, in some cases, brought down the lines.
As of 07:00UTC on Friday, the figures for those still without power is unclear but it is expected that re-connection has been limited by the weather, and estimates suggest complete power restoration will not be for a couple of days.
“Downed trees have been a noticeable feature of this storm across the region,” said Neena Saith, director of product marketing at RMS. “This is a consequence of the storm occurring after months of heavy rain in Scotland and where very wet ground conditions remain. Transportation networks were severely disrupted in Scotland and northeast England with bridge and road closure, train service speed restrictions and flight suspensions.”
An assessment of the scale of structural damage is at this time unclear. Preliminary reports indicate isolated damage.
Source : RMS Press Release
