What are the chances that as soon as you start a Storm Watching blog , within a couple of weeks the biggest storm in recent history will decide to hurl itself upon the Cornish coast? Yes, Winter Storm 'Hercules' debuted not only as a massively media-covered weather event, but, like the hurricanes that continually bother the American coast, as one of the first storms to carry a personal name.
Porthleven during the Hercules storm
Having started at St Ives, which had zero wind and only a medium sized swell running, arriving at Porthleven was like entering the apocalypse. Horizontal rain with sea driven spray and foam filled the air, drenching the crowds of photographers lining the harbour, while massive foamy waves pounded the cliff and burst over the sea wall in front of the clock tower, flooding the road and forcing unwary watchers to beat a panicked retreat.
Wet photographers
This storm was made large by an exceptionally active jetstream (and by active I mean fast moving) reaching its highest ever recorded speed of 275mph. This creative drive ensured that mid Atlantic waves measuring over sixty feet high were set in train, with the Cornish coast as their destination.
The ground was shaking when those waves unloaded onto the beach and cliffs. Elements of danger for us, but watch the birds in the first section of this slow motion video - are they just playing in the updrafts? For best effect, go full screen and HD with the video below (get a cuppa first, mind!).
In the afternoon I made it to Land's End and Sennen, where waves had been coming over the old coastguard lookout on top of the cliff, seventy metres above sea level.
Land's End getting washed
Birds seemed oblivious to the mayhem
Capturing the moment, Sennen car park
Stay safe if you're going to take pictures of the next storm. In the meantime, there are lots more storm and Cornish pictures to browse through over on Ocean-Image.com
The south west has essentially been battered by several hurricanes over the past few weeks. The most recent storm, hitting the coast on Friday afternoon and lasting until the small hours of Saturday morning, hit wind speeds above 80 mph and waves above thirty feet. The upper reaches of the widely used Beaufort scale are: Gale Force 8, Strong Gale Force 9, Storm Force 10 and Violent Storm 11 for winds up to 73mph and waves over 37 feet. Hurricane Force 12 is reserved for wind speeds above 74mph, and seas above 46 feet. Penzance Promenade No wonder Penzance and Newlyn seafront were decimated, because that's what Hurricanes do. A whole layer of the promenade scattered Although it might have been just a Violent Storm. This graph from the Penzance wave buoy would indicate otherwise, recording a wave over 90 feet. . Large enough Even if we assume this peak is an anomaly - the machinery that measures and records these waves has yet to be perfected, the Scillies
A couple of days ago a storm system showed up mid-Atlantic, with winds hitting Force 11 (Violent Storm) and open ocean waves sending the wave buoys up to around the 30ft mark. The main thing about this storm was that no-one really noticed it. Perhaps due to the brilliant sunshine and blue skies that arrived at the same time, the lack of a grey canopy and squally rain making folk unaware of the stormy seas nearby. There were few reports on the radio or TV, no warnings about walking on the beach, or storm watching. All was silent. So I thought I might get a sneaky wave at Sennen. Cornish Fireworks at Sennen The swell was too big to surf though, with waves bursting over the cliffs in a fifty mile an hour SW breeze, watched only by a handful of dog walkers and locals. Longships in a cloak of spray So I returned to the south coast, where the recent storms have uncovered remnants of a forest, believed to have covered the entirety of Mount's Bay about 5,000 years ago
The first couple of hurricanes of the season have started spinning in the south west corner of the Atlantic. Hurricane Bertha managed to spin in to the mid Atlantic and created some decent windsurfable waves in Cornwall but nothing particularly large. The preceding over-hyped media storm was certainly bigger. Now brewing just off the Florida pan handle is the nicely named Hurricane Cristobal, looking very pleasant in this graphic. Winds up to 60mph will see some decent size waves created, though more likely for the east coast of America than the UK at present. Cristobal If this system spins into the mid Atlantic as the current forecast predicts, we could have some really decent waves next weekend. If it heads directly to the UK, we could have some particularly unpleasant weather. Storms, massive waves and howling winds on a weekend in the UK? What are the chances of that happening?
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