St. Jude was the UK's largest storm since 2007
From as far back as last Wednesday The Met Office have been warning that trouble was brewing.
A deep area of low pressure, developed across Newfoundland and, carried along with the jet stream, swept eastwards, intensifying still further as it met with very warm air across the Atlantic. As expected, it eventually made landfall over SW England on Sunday night.
Unusually, the storm continued to intensify as it moved across the UK and, as it continues its track northeastwards across the North Sea, winds are strengthening to over 100mph. Denmark is on high alert for some ferocious conditions in the next few hours with gusts along the Danish coast already reaching 120mph.
Watch: Satellite imagery of storm moving across UK
Autumn storms are par for the course in the UK – and although we are still some way off the strength of the great storm of 1987, it’s certainly the most significant comparable storm for six years with hurricane strength gusts of winds reaching 99mph around The Needles in the Isle of Wight and 54mm of rain falling at Cardiff in just 24 hours.
With the storm now well away from our shores, the weather continues to improve across the UK. Sunny spells for many with a risk of showers mainly across central and western areas. Turning a little cooler too, in the wake of that system and as the winds back to a cooler, westerly direction. Temperatures actually peaked early this morning at around 16C and will drop a couple of degrees through this afternoon to a chillier 13/14C.
Watch: Aerial footage shows extent of storm damage
The rest of the week promises typically Autumnal conditions with sunny spells and showers or longer spells of rain. Temperatures continue to drop rather as winds become more west/northwesterly dragging in a colder polar maritime airmass.
There is the potential for another spell of wet and windy weather for the end of the week – although not in the same league as this morning’s storm. Stay tuned to the weather forecasts for the latest on this developing situation.