2016–17 UK and Ireland windstorm season

Background

In 2015, the Met Office and Met Éireann announced a pilot project to name storm warnings as part of the Name our Storms project for wind storms and asked the public for suggestions. The meteorological offices produced a full list of names for 2015–16, common to both the UK and Ireland. A new list of names was released on 19 September for the 2016–17 season. Names in the UK will be based on the National Severe Weather Warning Service, when a storm is assessed to have the potential for an amber 'be prepared' or red 'take action' warning.

Storm Angus

Storm Angus was named on 19 November, with southern and southeast England, especially along the Channel coast expected to be the greatest affected areas as the storm moves northeast on 20 November. The storm was known as "Nannette" in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The south-west of England was affected with over 1,000 power outages, mostly in Devon. Residents were evacuated due to flooding near South Molton, Devon. Further flooding was reported in Braunton and Bradiford, Devon, and East Bar, Swanage, Dorset. The high winds affected train service in the south-east, ferry crossing at the Port of Dover and the Brighton 10k run.

The National Grid launched an investigation whether a ship's anchor damaged four of the eight cables of the Cross Channel high voltage interconnector during storm Angus, which would leave it only able to operate at half of its capacity until February 2017.

A 39-year-old woman was found in the sea near Folkestone and was airlifted to hospital; she later died. Russell Sherwood, aged 69, had been reported as missing on the day of the storm: a car was found upside-down in the River Ogmore with his body inside on 23 November.

Storm Barbara

Storm Barbara was named on 20 December. Approximately 1,000 homes were without power in Northern Ireland. Part of a school roof was ripped off at Rhosgadfan near Caernarfon, Gwynedd, while hundreds of homes across Wales experienced power cuts.

Storm Conor

Storm Conor was named three days after Barbara on 23 December with mostly amber warnings for the Northern Isles and north Caithness on Boxing Day. Hundreds of homes across Scotland and The Shetland Islands experienced power cuts.

Storm Doris

Storm Doris was named on 21 February and impacted Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands on 23 February. A gust of 94mph was recorded at Capel Curig, Wales.

A 29-year-old woman died in Wolverhampton when debris fell on her in the street. Another woman, a 32 year old, was killed in Swindon when blown with an empty pram into the road. A man in his 80s died in hospital on 26 February after the car he was travelling in was crushed by a falling tree during Storm Doris. A girl was seriously injured when a ceiling collapsed on her at the Southwood School in Milton Keynes. A Flybe plane (Flight 1284) from Edinburgh to Amsterdam crash landed on the runway at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol due to the rear right landing gear collapsing; there were no injuries.

There was also snow and rain. Road, rail and air travel was disrupted and there were failures in power supply. The storm was described as a weather bomb.

Storm Ewan

Storm Ewan was named by Met Éireann four days after Doris and impacted Ireland on 26 February 2017.

Season effects

This table lists all known windstorms that affected the UK and Ireland during 2016–2017. It includes their name, duration, peak recorded gust (excluding mountain stations), lowest pressure, areas affected, deaths, and damage totals from the two nations. All damage figures are in 2016 pounds sterling and euros. The season's first half was more notable for rainfall and flooding, similar to that seen during the 2013–2014 Atlantic winter storms in Europe, which brought the 2013–2014 United Kingdom winter floods.