Southern England is currently being affected by SuperStorm St Jude. This is one of the biggest storms to affect the UK since Hurricane Bawbags.

Chaos of all kinds is predicted as Southern England braces itself for a near apocalyptic weather event. Currently a gust of 61 mph has already been recorded in Plymouth and it is raining also. Some trees have already been blown over.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24690552

I saw a bit of news on this earlier today (we get some U.K. coverage in our mainstream media). It looks like quite a large area could be hit, with all sorts of disruptions. Batten down the hatches and be safe over there.

I am in the area affected, and whilst there is a fair bit of disruption it does not seem that bad.

Very wet and windy.
Numerous trees down.
Some buildings damaged, but generally only those of poor construction.
Most rail routes closed due to trees or other wind related damage
One life confirmed as lost, tragic for those affected but hardly a large scale disaster
Power still on, most shops and businesess open though some are closed for lack of staff.

Out of London, to the West, conditions are somwhat worse with widespread power outages and road closures.
Such events are allways a bit worrying, but I have known worse.

wow - 61 mph gusts! we get those on a pretty regular basis here. takes down a tree now and then, more often some dead branches.

makes some noise. that is about it.

Actually, gusts up to 99 mph. Seems like a pretty intense storm to me.

"Around 270,000 homes are without power, and rail services across much of southern Britain were cancelled as high winds brought down trees.

Network Rail said the damage was "worse than expected," and 130 flights have been cancelled at Heathrow airport.

The Met Office said a gust of 99mph (159km/h) was recorded at Needles Old Battery, Isle of Wight, at 05:00 GMT.

The Environment Agency has issued 11 flood warnings - in south-west England, East Anglia and the Midlands, there are also 128 flood alerts across England and Wales."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24699748

Well apparently we had quite a few calls today from business customers about their lack of Internet Access due to SuperStorm St Jude.

After extensive investigations their Broadband Internet Access problems were diagnosed by asking the customers as to the status of the light bulb in the room.

BTW has anyone seen NatGeo's American Blackout yet!