[mumofstig]

https://www.netweather.tv/weather-forecasts/news/8497--time-to-batten-down-the-hatches-as-ophelia-approaches
I hope all the people in it's path manage to stay safe.
Batten down the hatches time again, the sea level surges look frightening with waves up to 35ft high forecast for southern Ireland 
https://www.netweather.tv/weather-forecasts/news/8496-tracking-ophelia---a-powerful-storm-heading-for-ireland-on-monday

Take care everyone!

[Eblana]

I spent today buttoning down the hatches both at home and at the plot.  Hopefully things won't be as bad as predicted.

[snowdrops]

I hope everyone escapes unscathed

[JayG]

For those who haven't seen it before, there is a beautiful animated graphic of the winds around the globe available on: https://earth.nullschool.net/

Click, drag and scroll to move to and enlarge the area you are interested in (it's not truly 'live' but an animation which is updated every 3 hours.)

Good luck to all those forecast to bear the brunt of the storm.

[Eblana]

It is starting to really blow here.  No school crèche hospital outpatient surgery shops etc open.  The light levels are really weird

[Goosegirl]

The winds are slowly picking up here too and we also have that funny yellow light in the sky. I just hope it's not a high tide here though, judging from the current wind direction, it seems to be blowing towards the Lune estuary rather than battering our coastline head-on. 

[Growster...]

Yes, good luck everyone!

By coincidence it's also the 30th anniversary of the big storm which wrecked much of the South and South East of the country.

Not that the memory of all that is very pleasant...

[snowdrops]

It is starting to really blow here.  No school crèche hospital outpatient surgery shops etc open.  The light levels are really weird

Now you mention it the lights weird here too & very muggy

[JayG]

The yellow or orange hue is apparently caused by space dust from the Sahara picked up by Ophelia:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41635906

Probably not enough to lighten clay soils though! 

[snowdrops]

Ahh that explains the muck on my car windscreen when I went out thanks JayG

[Pescador]

Sand dust rather than space dust, and also the smoke from the Iberian wild fires, which you can smell occasionally. It all makes for a very foreboding sky.

[madcat]

It went really dark, boiling dark low level clouds about 1pm here - all lights on in the house, and what light there was was a odd reddish colour.  Sand dust makes sense.  But that has blown through and it is now blue skies with high level thin cloud.   Big wash load on the line is drying fine, but I don't really believe it. 

[mumofstig]

I was working on the allotments in bright sunshine one minute, the next it was a weird orang/red sun in a grey sky.
All the birds went quiet like they do when there's an eclipse 
Very strange, but I'm home now -just in case it's the end of the world 

[Growster...]

It's the same over here, Mum, weird orange light and also a damn great jet came over at nought feet and frightened the life out of Mrs Growster, the dog, and me, in that order...

[Growster...]

Ahh that explains the muck on my car windscreen when I went out thanks JayG

And I've just finished cleaning the car...

Summer with a 'B'...