Met Office Storm Gerrit warnings for Scotland ‘were not strong enough’
The Met Office has pledged to review its weather alerts after people in Scotland claimed they were blindsided by the ferocity of Storm Gerrit.
Yellow warnings issued by the UK’s weather service had suggested a low chance of severe impacts from the storm, which has battered much of the country with 80mph winds, blizzards and heavy rain.
In the wake of travel chaos caused by snow, flooding and fallen trees, the Met Office has been challenged over whether amber alerts should have been issued.
David Duguid, the Conservative MP for Banff and Buchan, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “The effect of the weather in north-east Scotland in last 24 hours has felt far more serious than ‘yellow’. Many of my constituents asking why this wasn’t amber.”
People in Fort Augustus, in the Highlands, echoed the concerns after the area was hit by heavy winds, causing power cuts and road closures because of fallen trees.
David Harvey, 67, a retired bus driver and ex-serviceman said: “I don’t think the weather warning was good enough. It said it was a yellow warning, but the wind here was the worst that anyone can remember.
“People would have been better prepared if we had known how bad the storm was going to be. We were effectively cut off all day and night. Every road out of the village was blocked with fallen trees for hours last night.”
It is understood the Met Office is unable to issue different weather warnings for “hyper-local locations”, but a spokesman said that, as Storm Gerrit subsides, the efficiency of its alerts will be reviewed “as part of this event as usual in the coming days”.
The spokesman said the warning was not raised to amber because “the likelihood of disruption on a county scale remained too low to escalate until a very short lead time”, adding: “Once impacts were observed, the benefit of escalation would have been very limited as emergency services were already responding to the situation.”
According to the Met Office, a yellow warning means weather will cause some low-level impacts, including some disruption to travel in a few places but many people may be able to continue with their daily routine.
Amber warnings mean there is the possibility of travel delays, road and rail closures, power cuts and the potential risk to life and property. Rail services north of Perth and Dundee remained shut on Thursday, and key routes between Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness were closed.
Workers faced 80mph winds
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said power had been restored to more than 40,000 customers but about 1,500 properties would be without electricity until Friday. The power company said its workers had faced 80mph winds in some coastal areas and some had been trapped for hours on the A9 which was closed at Drumochter in the Highlands due to snow.
As some roads and rail routes reopened, Stein Connelly, the head of transport resilience at Transport Scotland, urged people to plan ahead when travelling: “It’s been an extremely challenging period for the transport network. The partnership response to Storm Gerrit continues and our trunk road operating companies are working hard to open roads as soon as possible.”
“The weather has improved and the Met Office warnings have ended but people may still encounter difficult driving conditions due to surface water and flooding. We continue to ask people to plan ahead, to drive appropriately and to take care out on the road network,” he added.
