Storm Barney swept across the southern half of the UK as forecast yesterday evening, bringing gusts of up to 85mph, and has now left our shores.
Thousands of homes were left without power in Wales, the Midlands, and in southern and eastern England. Damage caused by wind also caused disruption to rail services, flights and ferry crossings.
The table below shows the highest wind speeds recorded at Met Office observing sites between midday yesterday and 6am today:
| UK MAX GUST SPEED 17 NOV 1200 -18 NOV 0600 | |||
| SITE NAME | AREA | ELEVATION (M) | MAX GUST SPEED (MPH) |
| Aberdaron | Gwynedd | 95 | 85 |
| Capel Curig | Gwynedd | 216 | 84 |
| High Bradfield | South Yorkshire | 395 | 83 |
| Lake Vyrnwy | Powys | 360 | 83 |
| Pembrey Sands | Dyfed | 3 | 79 |
| Mumbles Head | West Glamorgan | 43 | 77 |
| Avonmouth | Avon | 9 | 75 |
| Aberporth | Dyfed | 133 | 74 |
| Needles, Old Battery | Isle of Wight | 80 | 73 |
| Valley | Gwynedd | 10 | 73 |
Storm Barney viewed from space as it crossed the UK:
#StormBarney brought a top wind gust of 85mph to Aberdaron yesterday https://t.co/X2CJ2ew6RV
— Met Office (@metoffice) November 18, 2015
You can record your observations and report impacts of Storm Barney on Met Office WOW
Official blog of the Met Office news team 
I note that storms such as Barney are being named based on forecast warnings for wind speeds thought likely to affect parts of or even the whole of the British Isles within the coming 48 hours or so. Whereas tropical storms are named when certain mean wind speeds are actually reached somewhere over the ocean.
Today’s depression near Scotland is bringing gales to parts of the UK but it has not been named; I assume that if it or a future depression reached the ‘naming’ threshold (based on actual mean wind speeds or perhaps peak recorded gusts) just as the system was exiting the British Isles the depression would still not be named by the British and Irish as it would be ‘too late’ (but there’s a chance the Met Office could rarely get caught out by unexpected ‘explosive’ deepening or tightening of isobars while Great Britain was still feeling the effects). (Also the odd storm might possibly get named ‘unnecessarily’ if the warnings are later downgraded or if an anticipated upgrade does not need to take place.)
Ashley. A storm will be named when it is deemed to have the potential to cause ‘medium’ or ‘high’ wind impacts on the UK and/or Ireland, i.e. if a yellow, amber or red warning for wind has been issued through the National Severe Weather Warnings. You can see the types of impacts in the table here http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/guide/weather/severe-weather-advice. Note that – as with warnings – we will name based on potential for a disruptive event.