Friday, 18 February, 2022
Updates as Storm Eunice batters York and North Yorkshire. Got info? Let us know on Twitter, or at [email protected]
All the latest flood warnings are here
This from National Highways Yorkshire…
This from Highways England:
The M1 in West Yorkshire is closed northbound between J39 (Wakefield) and J41 (Morley) due to two separate overturned lorries.
“West Yorkshire Police are in attendance. National Highways Traffic Officers are also on scene assisting with traffic management.“
There are diversions in place – here are the details.
This from the Highways Agency in the last few minutes…
The M62 Ouse Bridge between Junction 36 (Goole) and Junction 37 (Howden) is closed in both directions to all vehicles due to strong winds.
Eastbound traffic is advised to follow the solid square diversion symbol on road signs.
Westbound traffic is advised to follow the solid triangle diversion symbol on road signs.
Follow the reverse of the eastbound route above.
Things are starting to get challenging really for North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service.
After an already busy start to the day, they report “only just getting a few storm related incidents in the past hour”.
It has just tweeted that they have now attended:
Here are more details on those incidents.
At 4.16pm on Dragon Avenue, Harrogate, crews were called out to help make safe a flat roof that had almost blown off the building due to high winds. “Due to the severity of the wind fire crew were unable to assist physically. Crews gave advice to home owner,” the fire service reported.
At 4.20pm, crews went to Kirkland Close, Selby, responding to a tree “that had fallen onto a property causing some structural damage. No people were injured or trapped. Crews made the scene safe.”
At 4.26pm, a fire officer was called to Burton Road, Low Bentham to a chimney stack in an unsafe position due to high winds.
At 4.29pm, crews assisted police in removing a large tree that had fallen onto the A162 at Tadcaster blocking access. Firefighters sawed up the tree apart and removed it.
And at 4.41pm on Charles Street, Selby, firefighters assisted homeowners with a large tree in a precarious position. Crews only able to make area safe and gave advice.
The winds are due to get stronger in York this afternoon before dying down this evening.
According to the latest BBC weather update, gusts could reach 71mph in the city by about 4pm.
Gusts of between 60mph and 69mph are then predicted until 7pm. After that the wind reduces in ferocity, with gusts of 21mph forecast for 10pm.
The A66, which was closed as a precaution at midnight, is now back open.
Here’s the details from Highways England…
Trains travelling to London on the East Coast Main Line this afternoon are at a standstill.
It’s because the overhead wires have been damaged by Storm Eunice.
Both LNER and Grand Central Rail are advising: Do not travel.
Here are the updates from LNER.
Already closed to high-sided vehicles, the Humber Bridge will shut to all traffic at 1.30pm.
It will be closed for ‘several hours’ – here’s the details:
There’ll be no Ouse cruises today.
City Cruises has cancelled all its sailings today – including those in York.
Managing director Kyle Haughton said:
Due to Storm Eunice and the current rare red weather warning issued by the Met Office, City Cruises has made the decision to cancel all sightseeing services as well as its lunch and afternoon tea cruises in London and all operations in Poole and York.
“With a fleet of nine boats in the UK, this means a cancellation of 75 cruise operations today.
“The safety of our customers and our staff is paramount, and all customers impacted by this decision will be offered refunds, free amendments and are being contacted by our reservations team directly.
“The City Cruises team is at every location keeping an eye on all boats to ensure they are safely moored.”
A reminder that Museum Gardens is closed all day.
As we reported yesterday, York Museums Trust took the decision to shut the York city centre park due to the weather.
They said: “We’re really sorry for the inconvenience and disappointment this will cause, however, the safety of our visitors and staff is our highest priority.”
A much-anticipated event has been scuppered by the weather.
The Tadcaster Bridge Celebration Day, celebrating the fifth anniversary of the completed repairs to the bridge and its reopening, was to have taken place on Sunday.
It would have included a market, a lantern parade and more.
But the organisers said today:
We have made the really difficult decision to postpone our event on Sunday. All of the weather forecasts are predicting strong winds. Our two main elements of the day, the market and the parade, just can’t happen with high winds so we all agreed that the best decision was to move the event.
The new dates are 19 and 20 March, with the following elements happening on each day.
Saturday 19 March
Market
Roller Disco
Youth traders at the Barn
Craft workshop at the Barn
Skate Park
Sunday 20 March
Lantern making at the Barn PM
Lantern parade leaving Sainsbury’s car park at 6.30pm
There are several power outages in our area this morning.
Eighty homes are affected in the YO24 postcode, which covers Dringhouses and parts of South Bank.
The blackout was first reported at 7.28am. Northern Powergrid engineers are hoping to have the lights back on by 4pm.
In and around Pocklington, 150 premises were hit by a power cut reported at 10.07am. The affected postcodes are YO19, YO4, YO42, YO43 and YO8. The estimated time for a reconnection on that one is midday.
And near Holme-on-Spalding Moor, in the YO43 and YO8 postcodes, 60 homes are without power. This outage was reported at 7.18am and the estimated time of reconnection is 2.30pm.
Further east, 150 homes were blacked out at 8.15am in the YO25 and YO42 postcodes, between Pocklington and Driffield. Power should be restored here at about 11.45am.
Anyone who has been down by the River Ouse in York will have seen the water lapping at the sides of the staiths.
The good news is that the Environment Agency have scaled back the flood alerts in the area.
But one remains – for the Upper River Ouse.
Here’s the full alert:
River levels are high but falling slowly. The River Ouse in York has peaked at around 2.5m and the current level is 2.12m. Further rainfall is forecast for today 18/02/2022 and over the weekend which may see levels rise again. We will continue to monitor levels closely. The Foss Barrier has not been operated today as levels were not high enough to require it. Avoid using low lying footpaths and any bridges near local watercourses and do not attempt to walk or drive through flood water.
The Government’s emergency response committee has been convened to prepare for Storm Eunice, a minister has confirmed.
Home Office minister Damian Hinds told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Cobra have been convened about making sure the readiness is in place for this storm. Obviously it comes right on the back of Storm Dudley.
“We have had to learn a lot of lessons from previous events like Storm Arwen and others.
“There are troops as you know at readiness if needed, if military assistance is called for, the Environment Agency are of course on the ground, the network operators themselves are also in readiness.”
The train companies are all speaking with one voice today – don’t travel.
This is from LNER:
Severe weather is forecast for Friday 18 February which is likely to cause significant disruption to our services. Please do not travel today, Friday 18 February. Customers with tickets dated for travel on LNER services on Friday 18 February may defer their journey or claim a full refund. Please visit our Travel Alerts page for information on refunds and alternative travel.
This from Transpennine Express:
Customers across the entire TPE network are urged not to travel on Friday 18 February and instead, rearrange their journey for either Thursday 17 or Saturday 19 February.Ticket restrictions have been lifted so that customers with tickets for travel on TPE services on Friday 18 February can travel on TPE services on either Thursday 17 February or Saturday 19 February instead.
And this from Northern:
Do not travel between 0900-2100 on Friday 18 February. Storms Dudley (from Wednesday 16 to Thursday 17), followed by Eunice (on Friday 18, into the weekend) are expected to bring high winds and heavy rainfall to the Northern network. The storms will cause significant disruption across the network. Customers should expect delays and cancellations and are strongly advised not to travel on Friday 18 and to check before you travel for the rest of the weekend.
In York so far, it’s bit blowy and blustery but not too bad.
Here’s the take from York police:
Storm Eunice has brought snow to some of the higher and more northerly parts of North Yorkshire this morning.
Here are weather conditions around the county, courtesy of the North Yorkshire County Council webcams.
It’s a very mixed picture out there…
Welcome to our live blog as Storm Eunice brings high winds, rain and snow to York and North Yorkshire.
It looks like we could escape the worst – down south there’s a red weather warning.
A yellow weather warning for strong winds covers York and North Yorkshire from 7am to 6pm. There is also a yellow weather warning for snow which is covering some of North Yorkshire.
