My bumpy run-in with the tail end of Storm Eleanor
On Wednesday, I found myself flying from London to Newquay and into the eye of a storm. Actually, it was the tail end of Storm Eleanor, which wrought a fair bit of damage across the country, but, my word, it didn’t feel like it.
About 40 minutes in and with no warning, our 118-seat Embraer jet aircraft suddenly started being buffeted about like a dinghy in a storm. We dropped, sickeningly, before being rocked from side to side so violently that a poor hostess was thrown to the ground.
The worst bit of all was the silence. No one spoke, each just focused on our own silent prayers as the chassis rattled about us. Fortunately, after five stomach-churning minutes we broke through the clouds and began our descent into Cornwall.
The stewardess was fine, by the way, and after landing joked: “I’ve got three more of these to do today.” The rest of us shuffled off, never so glad to receive a faceful of Cornish wind and rain.
The ordeal has got me thinking about the windiest parts of Britain – if nothing else so I can try and deter my editors from sending me there the next time a storm front is looming.
Typically it is the west of the country, where the winds barrel in from the Atlantic.
Northern Scotland is the windiest – with the Shetlands having the highest average wind speed of 14.7 knots. Caernarvonshire has an average of 12.9 knots and Anglesey 11.9.
As for the highest speed ever recorded in Cornwall, it was a whopping 102.5 knots (118mph) at Gwennap Head on Dec 15 1979.
This weekend and into next week, the wind persists and it is getting colder, too. By Sunday, most will wake to a severe overnight frost.
Nothing like Storm Eleanor but still you won’t catch me in a plane for a while. Or at least if I do, it must be going somewhere hot.