Autumn’s opening named storm made a loud entrance. Storm Austen swept in from the Atlantic overnight into Friday, skirted southern Britain and slammed into north-western France, where Brittany took the heaviest blows. At the rocky headland of Pointe du Raz, the westernmost tip of Finistère, instruments clocked 161 km/h, while the island of Ouessant came in just behind at 158. For a number of stations, these were the strongest winds ever measured in the month.
By Friday morning about 161,000 French households had lost electricity, the large majority in Brittany, with the remainder in the neighbouring regions further east and south. Fallen trees cut off roads and kept fire crews busy all night. Rail operators halted every train in Normandy for the day, traffic limits were placed on the big Seine estuary bridges, ferries to Ireland and the Channel Islands were cancelled and Nantes airport scrapped several flights. The national forecaster raised its second-highest warning level for 23 departments, including the capital.
Across the Channel the Met Office recorded a top gust of 76 mph at St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly, with Portland and the Needles on the Isle of Wight close behind. At the peak, upwards of 16,000 properties in south-west England lost their supply, and amber warnings had been in force for Cornwall and west Devon. Even so, the readings stayed far below the UK’s October record of 124 mph, set in Wales in 1989.
German meteorologists, who christened the system Luise, forecast strong gusts for western parts of the country. Specialists warn that trees weakened by summer drought can topple in winds well short of storm force. There will be little respite: Storm Boelo is already lining up for the weekend, with gales and downpours expected chiefly in the north of the British Isles.
