Category: News & Leisure

Storm Brian, so named by the Irish Met. Service, was felt along the Sussex coast during Saturday. Squally winds, gusting to over 50 mph at Shoreham Airport, accompanied sudden downpours. Although the storm was not exceptional for the time of year, it was accompanied by some fairly high tides and very high seas. A local buoy reported waves regularly in excess of 5 metres,  some of which were captured on camera by the Old Fort.  Not a day to cross the Channel by ship, in fact some of the windiest weather  has been in the Channel Islands, with Alderney reporting gusts of 63 mph.

  

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The eerie orange sun followed by day darkness was not a precursor to the end of the world, but an unusual, if entirely natural, sequence of events. Easterly winds over north Africa produced some very warm weather in the Canary Islands but the air was thick with Saharan sand. Meanwhile, hurricane Ophelia was edging northeastwards to the west of Iberia where prolonged drought has caused numerous forest fires. As Ophelia became a deep, but extra-tropical,  depression, it rushed north towards southwest Ireland dragging the Saharan sand and smoke from Iberian forest fires  with it. It caused the sun to weaken and appear orange. Thick, mostly upper level, cloud associated with the remnants of the hurricane,  together with the sand and smoke, led to near darkness in the middle of the afternoon. Fortunately, very little rain fell, but the few spots that dropped from the leaden skies were very dusty, and those with light vehicles could hardly fail to notice a colour change.