Bug Eye

This next one is just starting to pick up, gusting to 87mph this evening. Massive seas likely tomorrow, and again on Saturday. I can't see a name for this one yet, but it looks like it's got bug eyes.

Continuing this post after the Bug Eye storm event now:

Overnight the wind howled and downed over 100 trees across Cornwall. Emergency services fielded 300 calls and were too busy clearing main roads to deal with this one which crushed a car in Penzance, so a 78 year old  resident started sawing it up himself.

Massive destructive waves hit Penzance and Newlyn and sunk boats at Porthleven when the harbour wall was breached.  One wave was recorded at nearly 75 ft in Mount's Bay.

Graph from SurfHog.com

The largest waves hit during the night with hundreds of people turning out to watch the show on the Promenade the next morning.

The incredibly heavy storm swell damaged Penzance pier, threw wreckage from the promenade all over the road causing police to close it, and demolished half of the footway over to Newlyn Green. The council erected fences around this gaping hole which was punched into the green.

In the early morning though, there was little wind, the sea at Newlyn looked calm and unruffled, with only the storm-bruised clouds drifting past to indicate the previous night's ferocity.

Meanwhile, not far from Budleigh Salterton in Devon, at an un-named secret spot once ridden at double-over-head by eminent surf writer Alex Wade, extreme thrill seekers braved the power of the swells, hopping and skipping their boards over the wave faces in an aggressive, animated dance. Or, in surfer parlance 'ripping' , 'shredding' and 'hacking' the waves apart, in much the same way that the waves had ripped Penzance and Newlyn apart.

While surfers might be 'amping' for this Saturday's mega storm, which promises even bigger waves according to the current forecasts, the emergency services and council will certainly be having an even larger clean up to organise on Sunday.

Stay safe out there!

Some great photos just in from guest photographer Bob Sharples, who was over in Porthleven during this storm.  As ever, the robustly built harbour was open to everything the Atlantic could throw at it.

Porthleven pier and road covered

The thick timber baulks, measuring about 20 inches square and slotted together to protect the harbour entrance were wrenched out or snapped like so many matchsticks, allowing the wind driven waves and storm surges into the inner harbour where all the fishing boats were moored.

'Bit splashy down Leven'

The incredibly well built solid granite harbour was finished in 1825 with the inner harbour added in 1858 specifically to protect fishing boats during storms. Dressed granite blocks weighing half a tonne were ripped out and scattered over the harbour road like so much rubble.

Heavy duty blocks moved by heavy duty waves

I've always enjoyed the precise engineering of the harbour as whole, it exuded a comforting air of solidity, remaining a stout defence against  a century and a half of storms, so it's a shame to see it breached.

Fishermen clearing the exposed harbour at low tide

Obviously my harbour issues are nothing compared to the owners of the six or more sunken boats, and the fishermen who had to haul their craft ashore to avoid a battering when the tide returned later.
Everything battened down now for the next storm!


Thanks for the photos Bob, check out his wildlife and more pics from this storm on Bob's Blog