Goretti among 'most impactful' storms in decades

Storm Goretti was one of the most impactful storms to hit Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in the last 30 to 35 years, according to the Met Office.

Met Office climate expert Professor Elizabeth Kendon said the strong winds during Goretti could have been due to a meteorological feature known as a sting jet - which are very rare in the UK, and could lead to strong, high level winds, funnelling down to ground-level very quickly.

In the Isles of Scilly, 99mph (159km/h) wind gusts were recorded during Storm Goretti.

Kendon said we could expect to see more storms like Storm Goretti as the climate changes.

She said sting jets could result in "devastating" impacts on the ground.

Kendon, who is the strategic head of climate protections and processes at the Exeter-based Met Office, said there was "a lot of variability" in how storms were expected to change in the future.

"I think Goretti is very much illustrative of the storms that we might expect in the future with climate change.

"So, extreme wind storms with sting jets are projected to increase in the future... from the studies we've done where we've used the very high resolution climate model, projection suggests that we do expect increases in these and these types of storms which are actually very difficult to forecast."

Goretti, which lashed Cornwall on Thursday 8 January, brought down masses of trees and caused power cuts to tens of thousands of homes.

One man was killed after a tree fell on to his caravan in the Mawgan area of Helston.

Cornwall's western coast was badly hit, with some residents going without power and water for five days.

Kendon said heavy rainfall and flooding was projected to occur more frequently during storms in the future in a warmer climate - something which was "critically important" with regards to trees uprooting.

She added: "And as we saw with Storm Goretti, it's this tree uprooting that can bring really severe impacts.

"It can just bring down power lines. It can lead to transport infrastructure. It can even lead to fatalities. So that is a critical aspect of what we might expect in the future."

Another projected feature of future storms is what is known as a storm surge - where, as a storm comes in, sea levels rise rapidly, Kendon said.

"As we move into the future warmer world, we know that sea levels are going to be increasing, and so the risk associated with coastal flooding is also increasing in the future," she added.

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