Tuesday’s Met Office note is the reason this page exists. Deputy chief forecaster Tom Crabtree said the exact track was still being determined, and that the system was named because of the disruption it could bring. He put peak gusts above 70 mph on the most exposed coasts, and 50 to 60 mph more widely inside the warning area. He said warnings stay under review. Storm Austen is expected to move from west to east through Friday, with the winds easing later in the day. Rain of 20 to 30 mm is expected in many places, with higher totals possible on higher ground in the west and further north. After Friday, the same note expects further wind and rain through the weekend and into the start of next week, heaviest toward the west. Read the live warning for your postcode before you treat any of those sentences as your street.
Monday’s warning map, issued before the name, covered a long list of councils in southern England, south Wales and Herefordshire. Directory cities that sit inside that Monday list include Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Gloucester, Cardiff and Swansea. A shift in the track can pull other cities in, or leave an edge of that list quieter. Manchester and Glasgow were outside the strongest of Monday’s wind. They are on this page only if the live map later includes them. The boiler fact does not move with the map: if your lights go out, the heating goes with them, wherever the yellow area sits.
What the name changes, and what it leaves alone
A name means the Met Office expects impacts worth telling the public about. It does not mean the warning has become red, and it does not mean you go onto the roof on Wednesday. Crabtree’s note kept the warning yellow and said it could still be updated. The job that belongs to the building shell is already written: latch the windows, fasten the garage door, and bolt the loft hatch, on the fasten page. Bins and the trampoline stay on the garden page linked from there. The 20 to 30 mm of rain is why the yard gully wants clearing while the path is dry. Water coming under a door is the surface-water page. A tile already on the lawn, seen from the pavement, is a roofer after the wind has dropped, and the leak page is the one to use if water is already indoors.
This page is the part Monday’s fasten list could only point at. The Energy Networks Association says gas boilers and heating stop in a power cut, and that the home internet and a landline stop too. You may also lose mobile signal. The useful hour is Wednesday, and Thursday morning if the warning has not started. Once the wind is up, the Met Office storm advice is to stay indoors and to leave repairs until it has passed. Friday afternoon is the wrong time to discover that the only torch is in the garage and the phone is on 4 per cent.
Write two numbers on paper and put the paper with the torch. In England, Scotland and Wales, 105 is free and reaches the electricity network, which is not the company on your bill. In Northern Ireland the Energy Networks Association publishes 03457 643 643. A router that has died cannot show you either number.
Why the heating stops when the lights do
A modern gas boiler uses electricity for the fan, the pump, the ignition and the controls. The flame is gas. The sequence that lights it is not. SGN’s incidents page, written for its customers in Scotland and southern England, says a power cut means the gas boiler or central heating will not work while the electricity is off, and that a boiler fault which is not a power cut needs a Gas Safe registered engineer. That sentence describes the appliance. It does not mean SGN owns the gas main on a street in Plymouth or Cardiff. Whoever owns the pipe, the boiler still needs power.
Oxford City Council’s housing guide says the same thing in plainer words: gas boilers need electricity, so the heating stops during a cut, while gas fires and cookers are usually unaffected. On a combi, the hot taps stop as well, because that boiler heats water only while it is running. A cylinder that was already hot still holds what it held. It will not reheat until the power is back. Leave that water in the cylinder. Running it off to see whether the boiler has died tells you nothing the lights have not already told you, and it leaves you with an empty tank.
An oil-fired boiler in a house off the gas grid stops for the same electrical reason. The burner and the pump need power. The gauge on the tank, and what to get in writing before a delivery, are the tank page and the delivery page. A heat pump stops because it is electric from the start. An immersion heater is electric too, so it is not a backup while the cut lasts. A plug-in heater is the same: it does nothing until the supply returns. What one costs to run, once the power is back, is the heater-or-boiler page. During the cut, the useful heat is whatever the house still holds, plus blankets, plus a stove you have already checked.
That stove is a narrow exception. If you walked the sweep, the fuel and the flue on the wood-burner page earlier this month, it can warm one room without mains power. Lighting a stove you have not checked, in the dark, with the wind up, is how that page tells you to stop. A barbecue, a camping stove, or a generator brought inside is a different hazard again. The NHS carbon monoxide page says barbecues and camping stoves indoors, and engines run in a garage, can build up a gas you cannot see or smell. The alarm check, if you have not pressed the button this season, is the alarm page, and Wednesday is still daylight enough to do it.
What to set up before late Thursday
The Association’s storm page splits preparation into things you can finish while the power is still on. None of them requires a ladder. Tenants can do the phone, the torch, the flask and the alarm test without asking. A new consumer unit, a boiler repair, or a battery unit for a landline belongs to the person who is allowed to buy it. Tell them on Wednesday, not from the hall on Friday night.
- Open the live warning and read your postcode. If the colour has been raised, or the text tells you to stay in, skip any job that means going outside. The boiler list below is all indoors.
- Charge the mobile phone, and a power bank if you have one. The Association also asks for a torch with spare batteries, and a battery or wind-up radio with the station frequency written down. A car radio works, and the same page says that in severe weather it is safer to stay inside.
- Write 105 on the paper, or 03457 643 643 if you are in Northern Ireland. Save it in the phone as well. Find your network operator by postcode on PowerCut105.com while the wifi still works, so you know the name you will hear when 105 answers.
- If your only way to call 999 is a digital landline, or a telecare alarm uses that line, contact the provider today. The Association says the provider might offer a free backup, such as a battery unit, for a minimum of one hour. A personal alarm or a diabetes sensor needs the same question put to the company that supplied it. Ask how it behaves when the mains fails. Do not guess.
- If someone in the house depends on electricity for medical or mobility equipment, speak to their care team today. The Met Office power-cut page and the Association both point to the Priority Services Register, a free register you join through your supplier and your network operator. Joining on Wednesday tells them who needs help. It does not switch the street back on.
- Boil the kettle while it still works and fill a flask. Put blankets in the room you will actually sit in. Put food in reach that does not need the oven. Have that room warm on Thursday evening, while the boiler still has power, and shut the doors to the rooms you will not use.
- Press the carbon monoxide alarm’s test button if you have not done it this season. Read the date on the back. The steps and the point at which you leave the house are the alarm page. A test beep is the check. A beep you did not ask for is the leave-now signal.
- If a medicine must stay cold, read the label and ask the pharmacy before Friday how they want you to store it. Do not invent a number of hours the fridge will cope. The Met Office says a closed fridge or freezer, with a blanket over it, stays cold for many hours. That is the whole instruction. Opening the door to check wastes the cold you have.
A prepay electricity meter that runs out looks like a cut that affects only your house. If the display is asking for credit, that top-up is a conversation with the supplier on the bill, after you have checked the neighbours still have lights. It is not a reason to call 105, and it is not a reason to open the boiler.
While the lights are out
The Met Office power-cut page starts with the neighbours. If their lights are out as well, do not assume the network already knows. Call. 105 in England, Scotland and Wales. 03457 643 643 in Northern Ireland. The person who answers is the distribution operator, the company that owns the cables. The company named on your monthly bill sells you the energy. They do not put the wires back up. Tell the operator your postcode, whether the street is dark, and the time the lights failed. Write that time on the same paper as the phone number.
If the neighbours still have power, the Met Office page says the fault is likely to be the fuses or trip switches in your own home. If you already know the consumer unit, the cupboard is dry, and there is no smell of burning, unplug heaters and the kettle, then put the switch that has tripped back once. If it trips again, stop. If you have never opened the board, or you can smell burning, or rain has reached the cupboard, leave it closed. An electrician is the right call once it is safe to be at the door. Water in that cupboard is also a reason to move to the leak page or the surface-water page, from a dry room, and to keep your hands off the board.
| What you can see | What it usually means | Who you ring |
|---|---|---|
| Neighbours and the street lights are dark | The network has lost supply. The boiler will not fire until that supply returns | 105, or 03457 643 643 in Northern Ireland. The supplier on the bill does not repair the cable |
| Only your house is dark, the board is dry, and there is no burning smell | A trip switch, or a prepay meter that wants credit | One reset after you unplug heaters. If it trips again, an electrician when you can meet them safely. Prepay credit is the supplier |
| The lights are back, and the boiler is still dead after the wait | A programmer that lost its time, or a lockout | Check the clock, then one reset if the handbook shows it. After that, a Gas Safe engineer. The case stays on |
| A cable is down or hanging lower than usual | A danger, even if it looks quiet | Stay as far away as you can, keep other people away, call 105 or the Northern Ireland number, and call 999 if someone is in immediate danger |
| You smell gas, or the carbon monoxide alarm sounds | Leave. A power cut does not make this a fuse-box job | 0800 111 999 from outside, with no switches on the way. NHS 111 if anyone has symptoms. 999 for the urgent NHS list |
While you wait, the Met Office page tells you to switch off appliances that would be a hazard if the power returned while you were out of the room: irons, ovens, electric fires and fryers. Leave a single lamp switched on so you can see the moment the supply returns without walking the house. Keep the fridge and freezer shut, with a blanket over them. Look out for an older neighbour if you can do it by phone. A walk up the street while the warning is in force is the storm advice telling you to stay in.
The boiler itself gets no reset during the cut. There is nothing for the fan to do until the electricity is back, and holding a button in the dark does not store a repair. Leave the case on. If you smell gas, leave the house, avoid switches, and use 0800 111 999, the gas emergency number the Met Office page publishes. If the carbon monoxide alarm sounds, or anyone has a headache, dizziness, sickness, weakness, confusion, chest or muscle pain, or shortness of breath, the NHS page says go outside. Those symptoms can come and go, and they can ease in the fresh air, which is why you do not go back in to see if the alarm was fussing. NHS 111 is the line for suspected carbon monoxide. The NHS says to call 999 or go to A&E if the person is struggling to breathe, suddenly confused, unconscious, weak, or in chest or muscle pain, and not to drive yourself there.
Do not heat the kitchen with the hob or the oven, and do not bring a barbecue, a camping stove or a generator inside. The NHS lists those indoor uses as ways carbon monoxide builds up. A gas hob that still lights can cook a meal with the room ventilated. It is not the heating.
When the power comes back
Oxford’s housing guide, written for its own tenants, says that once power is restored you wait up to 30 minutes for the boiler to restart, then check the programmer. If it is still dead, they ask the tenant to request a repair. For an owner-occupier the pause is the useful part. Thirty minutes is their checklist, not a rule that your boiler must recover, and you are not asking a council to attend. Use the half hour to look at the programmer before you decide the appliance has failed.
A cut on Friday can wipe a clock that has no battery. The display may show a blank, or a time that is hours out. Set it to what your phone says, and put the heating back into the period you actually want. Sunday 25 October is a second change: the clocks go back at 2am, and that job is the heating-clock page. Doing Sunday’s change on Friday night, because the programmer looks wrong, leaves you an hour out again on Monday. Fix Friday’s loss now. Do the autumn change on Sunday.
The isolation switch beside the boiler should be on. Oxford’s general boiler checklist names that switch before any repair request. You are checking a switch you can see. You are not taking the front off. If the gauge is outside the band printed in the handbook, the next page is low pressure, and only if the handbook tells you to use the filling loop. If the display shows a lockout and the handbook shows a reset on the front, press it once. If it locks out again, stop. Repeated resets are the rule on the lockout page. That page is a boiler which has electricity and still will not ignite. You have reached it only after the lights are back and the wait is over.
If the consumer unit trips again at the moment the boiler tries to start, leave the switch off and book an electrician when the wind has dropped enough for them to reach the door. Do not keep resetting a board that will not hold. If the white pipe outside the boiler is exposed and a later night is frosty, the condensate page is the check, done from the ground in daylight. Tuesday’s note did not promise a frost. It promised more rain, especially in the west. A frozen pipe and a power cut can look the same on the display. You only thaw a pipe you can see, and only by the method that page allows.
When this check is over
Some findings end the list. Put the torch down and use the other instruction.
- You smell gas, or you hear a hiss you cannot place. Leave, avoid switches, and call 0800 111 999 from outside.
- The carbon monoxide alarm sounds, or anyone has the symptoms on the NHS page. Go outside. NHS 111, or 999 for the urgent list. Do not air the house and sit back down to see if it passes.
- You smell burning at the consumer unit, the cupboard is wet, or a switch will not stay on. Leave the board alone. An electrician, once it is safe to meet them. If the house is on fire or someone is in danger, 999.
- A cable is on the ground or hanging lower than usual. The Association says keep as far away as you can, keep other people away, call 105 or 03457 643 643, and call 999 if someone is in immediate danger. A dish lying next to that cable stays where it fell.
- The only way to see the fault is a ladder, a walk on the roof, or opening the boiler case. Stop. The case is a Gas Safe job. The roof is a roofer, after the warning, from their own access.
A payment for a long electricity cut, if one is due, comes through the network rules the Association describes, not through a figure you remember from a gas interruption. Severe weather changes the timings. PowerCut105.com is where the Association sends you for that detail. Write down when the lights failed and when they returned. That note is what you will be asked for. It is not a claim this site can submit for you.
What to say when you do ring
On 105, or on 03457 643 643 in Northern Ireland, say the postcode, whether the neighbours are dark, whether you can see a damaged line, and the time. Ask for the estimated restoration if they have one. If someone in the house is on the Priority Services Register, say so. If a cable is down, say where it is lying and that you have kept people away. You do not need a tradesperson for that call.
On an electrical call, say that the neighbours have power, that you reset a switch once, and whether it tripped again. Say whether there is a smell of burning, and whether the cupboard got wet. Say you have not opened the boiler. The number is on a card under electrical. You ring. This site does not pass the job on.
On a heating call, wait until the power is back, the half hour has passed, the programmer shows the right time, and one reset has failed or the boiler has locked out again. Say that sequence in that order, so the engineer knows this is not a street that is still dark. Ask for the Gas Safe licence number. The qualification, and when gas work has to be done by a registered engineer, is set out on the Gas Safe note. A replacement price, if they later say the boiler is finished, is the boiler cost note. That note is not a call-out fee for a reset, and it is not a quote.
If the live warning covers your postcode, use the city list and the number on the card. For the south-west of England, plumbing in Exeter and Plymouth. For the Severn and the south Wales coast, Bristol and Cardiff. For the south coast of the Monday map, Brighton and Southampton. Portsmouth, Gloucester and Swansea use the same pattern under plumbing if the live map includes them. Anywhere the warning does not reach, you do not need this call on Friday. The contact-details page shows how to reach a business yourself.
Questions that change the call
Will the gas hob still work if the boiler has stopped?
Oxford City Council’s housing guide says gas fires and cookers are usually unaffected when a power cut stops the boiler. A traditional hob may still light. Do not leave it, or the oven, burning to warm the room. The NHS says gas cookers can produce carbon monoxide if they are faulty or poorly maintained, and that a barbecue or a camping stove used indoors can build that gas up. Cook with a window open if you need a meal. If the carbon monoxide alarm sounds, or anyone develops the symptoms the NHS lists, go outside. Use NHS 111 for those symptoms, and 999 if someone is struggling to breathe, suddenly confused, unconscious, weak, or in chest or muscle pain.
Should I press reset while the lights are out?
No. The boiler cannot fire until the electricity is back, and pressing reset in the dark does not change that. When the lights return, Oxford City Council’s housing guide says wait up to 30 minutes and check the programmer. That pause is their checklist before a repair request. It is a sensible wait for an owner-occupier too, and it is not a promise the boiler will recover. If it then shows a lockout and the handbook has a reset on the front, press it once. If it locks out again, stop. Leave the case on and use a Gas Safe engineer.
Does the company on my bill pay me if the cut is long?
The name on the bill is the supplier. The cables belong to the distribution network. In England, Scotland and Wales you report the cut on 105, which is free and connects you to that network. In Northern Ireland the Energy Networks Association gives 03457 643 643. The Association says you might be entitled to a payment and points to PowerCut105.com for the detail. Severe weather uses different timings from a calm day. A pound figure you have seen for a loss of gas is a different interruption. Do not treat it as the payment for this wind.
Need a number after the power is back?
Open the list, pick the city, and contact the business yourself.