Storm Francis Follows Hot on the Heels of Ellen

At the moment I’m too busy writing about the seemingly never ending sequence of power cuts due to “extreme weather” events to wax lyrical about developments in vehicle-to-grid technology!

In California the heat wave is over and rolling blackouts a thing of the past, for the moment at least. However the wildfires continue, and the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory is temporarily closed:

Meanwhile in the Gulf of Mexico tropical storms Laura and Marco are simultaneously heading for the Louisiana coast. Laura is forecast to be a hurricane by the time she gets there, with Marco being merely an ex hurricane by landfall later today.

Now this morning comes news that hot on the heels of Storm Ellen last week, which caused many tens of thousands of properties in Ireland to suffer a power cut, the United Kingdom’s Meteorological Office has named Storm Francis:

Further power cuts are expected in the near future, on the shores of both the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic! Here is the local wind forecast for the V2G Group office in (Silic)Inny Valley, North Cornwall, courtesy of MeteoCiel:

Please note that this forecast is for the peak of the post 2020 Covid-19 lockdown Cornish staycation season, not the middle of winter!


[Edit – August 25th 08:00]

As the winds from Storm Francis increase over South West England let’s take a quick look at current and projected electricity generation for today:

Plus today’s Octopus Energy Agile electricity tariff for South West England:

and the United Kingdom’s carbon intensity forecast:

[Edit – August 25th 22:00]

Here’s an image of Storm Francis over the British Isles recorded earlier today by the Suomi satellite:

1 thought on “Storm Francis Follows Hot on the Heels of Ellen

  1. Western Power Distribution, our local Distribution Network Operator here in Cornwall, is preparing for tomorrow’s storm:

    Throughout the next 24 hours or so there could be some disruption across the network, with unusually strong winds for August and the risk of localised flooding…

    We can expects gusts of 55/65mph throughout all areas of WPD and possible peaks of 65-70 mph in the more exposed locations in Mid and West Wales and westerly parts of the Midlands.

    Here’s WPD’s current power cut map during the calm before Storm Francis:

    Here too is ESB Networks’ equivalent map for Ireland:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded.