Site visitors on England’s roads appeared to scale back by over a fifth throughout Storm Eunice, as drivers appeared to heed the recommendation of the Met Workplace, Nationwide Highways, the RAC and emergency responders to take precautions to remain secure in the course of the strongest storm to affect England and Wales since February 2014.
In keeping with Nationwide Highways, there was 21% much less visitors than would usually be anticipated on England’s roads on 18 February, as two uncommon Met Workplace Pink Nationwide Extreme Climate Warnings got here into power for Storm Eunice.
In keeping with Met Workplace post-event surveys, 99% of individuals inside the purple warning space within the southeast have been conscious of the warnings, whereas 98% of these inside the purple warning space in southwest England and south Wales knew concerning the warning.
Impactful climate
Storm Eunice got here in the midst of per week which noticed three named storms affecting the UK, the primary time this has occurred since storm naming was launched in 2015/2016. These storms got here in a turbulent week of moist and windy climate for the UK, which was related to a strong jet stream.
Storm Eunice was probably the most extreme and damaging storm of the three storms, bringing the strongest winds with gusts extensively over 80mph for a lot of southern areas of the UK and a brand new England gust pace document of 122mph being reached at an uncovered station on the Isle of Wight.
Journey disruption
Disruption was skilled for a lot of the UK, with a lot of energy cuts, fallen bushes and delayed or cancelled trains.
Whereas disruption on the roads was nonetheless keenly felt by those that had no selection however to move out within the circumstances, 21% fewer automobiles took to the street in England, serving to to reduce a number of the visitors points on blocked routes.
Melanie Clarke, Buyer Service Director (Operations) for Nationwide Highways, stated: “Storms Dudley, Eunice, and Franklin have been a number of the worst storms skilled in a long time and positively supplied us with difficult circumstances throughout our community of motorways and main A roads.
“Though lots of people heeded our recommendation to not journey, our military of visitors officers, management room operators and winter service groups have been extremely busy, preserving roads gritted, responding to incidents, and guaranteeing our community of motorways and main A roads remained secure.”
That discount in visitors additionally helped to ease the burden on the RAC, who skilled a 16% discount in callouts throughout the UK than would sometimes be anticipated in a day. It was a 34% discount in callouts for Wales alone.
RAC spokesperson Rod Dennis stated: “These figures clearly present that, with sufficient discover and loads of clear communication on to the general public, it’s potential to vary drivers’ behaviour in periods of extreme climate. For us, much less visitors on the roads throughout Storm Eunice led to fewer incidents and meant drivers – in addition to our patrols – have been stored secure.”
Early, correct forecasts
Drivers, in addition to native and nationwide resilience teams, have been aided by early, correct forecasts from the Met Workplace, with Storm Eunice being named some 4 days earlier than it struck.
Will Lang takes care of managing extreme climate occasions inside the Met Workplace. He stated: “Whereas nobody desires extreme climate to affect their plans, it was important for everybody’s security that the general public listened to the warnings and understood the dangers throughout this week of impactful climate for the UK.
“We’re more than happy that our early warnings helped individuals make preparations to keep away from taking to the roads throughout Storm Eunice. With out that discount in visitors, the impacts on the roads may have been a lot worse.”
With three storms within the week, Met Workplace forecasts aided vital companies throughout the nation to assist individuals to remain secure. From serving to the air visitors management service, NATS, to land plane in difficult circumstances to working with emergency responders as impacts from the climate turned clear.
When it actually issues, vital companies belief the Met Workplace to offer correct climate forecasts which help planning and resolution making. So that you might be certain these forecasts will provide help to plan your on a regular basis too.
You may test the newest forecast on our web site, by following us on Twitter and Fb, in addition to on our cellular app which is out there for iPhone from the App retailer and for Android from the Google Play retailer. Hold monitor of present climate warnings on the climate warning web page.
