Monday’s warning is specific, and it is still movable. The Met Office press note, timed 12:13 on 19 October 2026, said a yellow severe weather warning for wind covered Thursday night and Friday in the south of the UK. It put likely gusts at 50 to 60 mph, and up to 70 mph in exposed coastal spots. Deputy chief forecaster Tom Crabtree said a deep area of low pressure could cross the UK overnight Thursday and through Friday, and that the strongest winds would depend on where that low sits. The same note expected Friday to be widely wet and windy, with the low clearing into the North Sea later on Friday afternoon and colder air following for a time on Friday night into Saturday. An update carried in that note narrowed one window to Friday 0000–1200 across parts of southern England and Wales. Treat the live warning for your postcode as the clock, because Monday’s wording and Tuesday’s map need not match.
Matt Taylor and Simon King’s BBC Weather piece, also dated 19 October, described a yellow warning from midnight to 12:00 BST on Friday for south-west Wales, south-west England and the coast towards West Sussex. They wrote that gusts of 50 to 60 mph were likely, with 70 mph in more exposed places, and that impacts could include travel disruption, damage to buildings and a small risk of power cuts. Most computer models they described took the centre of the low across southern Britain. A more northerly track would spread gales into Scotland and Northern Ireland. A more southerly track would hit France harder. They said a name, Storm Austen, would follow only if the Met Office or Met Éireann expected impacts at amber or higher. A French name, Storm Bruna, was the southerly case. On Tuesday 20 October the Met Office named it Storm Austen while the warning was still yellow. You are fastening the house for the live warning on your postcode, and you are checking the storm centre in case the colour changes.
What to do with a warning that can still move
A yellow warning is a prompt to read the detail, then do the house jobs while the wind is still down. The Met Office warnings guide says the colour mixes how severe the impacts may be with how likely they are, and that yellow can cover a range. The same guide lists the kinds of impact severe weather can bring, including damage to property, travel delays, and power cuts. It does not ask you to guess your street from the national headline. Open the warning, read the matrix if it is shown, and see whether your postcode sits inside the area. Monday’s BBC piece placed that yellow area over south-west Wales, south-west England and the coast towards West Sussex. Exeter and Plymouth sit in the south-west of England. Cardiff, Bristol and Brighton are near the edges of that description, so the postcode check matters more than the headline. Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow were outside the strongest wind on the track most models showed on Monday, and a shift north would pull them in. The fasten takes the same half hour either way.
The working window is the gap before that warning starts. BBC Weather said Tuesday would bring heavy rain across much of England and east Wales, with more rain likely on Wednesday, and that the week would be the wettest and windiest of the autumn so far. The Met Office national outlook on Monday had Thursday brighter and calmer before Friday turned wet and potentially very windy. Use a dry hour on Tuesday, the clearance on Wednesday, or Thursday morning. Once the warning is in force, the storm advice says to stay indoors as much as possible and not to go outside to repair damage while the wind is still blowing. Friday afternoon is the wrong time to discover the loft hatch has no bolt.
Colder air on Friday night into Saturday is a different job. If the white pipe outside the boiler is exposed, that check is the condensate-pipe page. If you are about to light a stove for the first time this season, use the wood-burner page. This page stops at the doors, the hatch and the note you make from the pavement.
Write two numbers on paper before Friday, and keep the paper with the torch. In England, Scotland and Wales, 105 is the free power-cut line. In Northern Ireland, NIE Networks publishes 03457 643 643. A phone with a flat battery cannot show you either number in the dark.
What you can fasten without going outside
The Met Office storm page splits the work into before, during and after. The before items that belong to the building, rather than the lawn, are the ones you can finish from the hall. Latch the windows and the doors, and give the garage door the same attention as the front door, because a wide door catches more wind than a casement. Put the car in the garage when it fits. When it does not, leave it away from the house, trees, walls and fences if you already have a space that clear. Shut the loft hatch and use the bolt, and treat that as more urgent when you already know the roof is a shallow one, under about 30 degrees. Shutters only matter if they are already on the house. A tall stack you already know is cracked or leaning is a reason to move the beds out of the room beneath it. Bins, pots, furniture, the trampoline and a locked shed door stay on the garden page. A ladder left against the wall belongs there too: the storm page treats a loose ladder as something the wind can throw into glass.
- Read the live warning for your postcode. If it is already amber or red, or if it tells you to stay in, skip the pavement glance later on this page and stay with the doors you can reach from the hall.
- Latch every window you can reach from inside, and fasten the large doors, including the garage door if you have one. Monday’s track was still moving, so the windward face on Friday morning may not be the face you guess on Tuesday. Do the whole house.
- If the car fits in the garage, put it in and fasten the door behind it. If it does not fit, move it clear of the house, the trees, the walls and the fences where you already have that space. Do not drive around looking for a space once the warning has started. The storm page also says not to drive unless the journey is really necessary.
- Close the loft hatch and shoot the bolt if it has one. Do this particularly if you already know the roof is shallower than about 30 degrees, which is common on some bungalows and on flat-roofed or low-pitched extensions. If you do not know the pitch, still close the hatch. Do not go onto the roof to measure it.
- If storm shutters are already fitted, close and fasten them. If the house has never had shutters, do not buy a set on Thursday and try to hang them in the wind.
- If you already know a chimney stack is tall, cracked, leaning, or missing mortar, move the beds out of the room underneath it. If you have never had the stack looked at, do not learn its condition by climbing. A pot that is obviously off square can be seen from the opposite pavement, in daylight, before the warning starts.
- Bring a ladder in from the wall and lay it where the wind cannot take it into a window. Leave it there. It is not the start of a roof job.
- Charge the phone, put batteries in a torch, and park the written numbers next to it. The government’s Prepare page on power cuts says a torch is safer than candles, and that the torch on a phone runs the battery down.
Tenants can do the latches, the hatch and the torch without asking. Moving a bed is the same. A new bolt, a garage-door spring or a chimney repair belongs to the landlord or the owner. Tell them what you saw, in daylight, and leave the tools alone. Owner-occupiers on a short terrace should still fasten their own door. A shared alley does not make the loft hatch a neighbour’s job.
What a pavement glance is allowed to decide
One walk, in daylight, from your own path or the opposite pavement. You are collecting a sentence for a phone call after the warning, or confirming that nothing is already hanging. You are not surveying the roof. Missing tiles seen after rain, and a wet loft, belong on the ground-level roof check. Water coming through a ceiling belongs on the roof-leak page, and you deal with that from a dry room.
| What you can see | Do before the warning | Who you ring later |
|---|---|---|
| A window or a garage door that still moves when you push the handle | Fasten it from inside. A door that will not latch is a note for a carpenter or a garage-door fitter after Friday, if you cannot secure it another way that is already fitted | The person who repairs that door. Say which elevation, and that you have not taken the door off |
| A loft hatch that sits proud, or a bolt that will not shoot | Close it as far as it will go. Do not stand on a chair under a hatch you cannot secure and keep pushing | A roofer if the loft is the way water would enter a shallow roof. Say you closed it and the bolt failed |
| A tile, slate or ridge piece already on the ground or in the gutter you can see from below | Leave it where it lies if picking it up puts you under the eaves. Photograph it from a safe spot if you want a record | A roofer, and say a piece is already down before Friday’s wind. Water through the ceiling is the leak page, today |
| A soffit or fascia board hanging, or an aerial or dish swinging on its cable | Stay clear. Do not pull the cable to see if it is still fixed | A roofer for a hanging board. An electrician or an aerial fitter for a dish or aerial, once the wind has dropped |
| A chimney pot off square, seen from the opposite pavement | Move beds from the room below if you can do that from inside. Stay off the stack | A roofer or a builder who will use their own access. Describe the lean. Do not ask them to climb during the warning |
| A roof window left on a vent | Close and latch it from inside if the winder still works | A roofer if the winder is seized or the frame is already leaking. That is a dry-day job |
A piece already on the lawn is the fact that changes the call from a routine booking to as soon as they can attend safely. Friday’s gusts can move a loose tile that has not fallen yet. They do not make a ladder safe, and they do not make a same-day climb a sensible request. Say you have stayed on the ground. Ask whether the visit is after the warning has cleared. Ask whether the figure is plus VAT. If the warning covers your postcode, open the city list and use the number on the card: roofing in Exeter and roofing in Plymouth for the south-west of England, and Cardiff, Bristol or Brighton if the live map includes them. Anywhere else, use the same pattern under roofing. Pound ranges for roofing work, where this site has them, sit on the new-roof cost note. That note is not a price for picking up one slate, and it is not a call-out fee.
If the lights go out while the wind is up
BBC Weather called the power-cut risk small. Small is not a promise that your street stays on, and it is not a reason to book an electrician on Tuesday “in case”. The useful split is whose power has failed. The Met Office power-cut page says to look at the neighbours. If they are dark as well, do not assume the network operator already knows. Call. In England, Scotland and Wales, 105 is free and connects you to the local distribution operator, the company that owns the cables, which is not the company named on your bill. In Northern Ireland, the Energy Networks Association and NIE Networks both give 03457 643 643 for a loss of supply. The government’s Prepare page tells you to write the number down, because internet routers and some digital landlines stop when the power stops.
If the neighbours still have lights, 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 board, it is dry, and there is no smell of burning, one reset of the switch that has tripped is the check. If it trips again, stop. If you have never opened the board, or you can smell burning, or the cupboard is wet, leave it closed. An electrician is the right call once it is safe to be at the door. The number is on a card under electrical, with city lists such as Plymouth, Bristol and Cardiff. You ring. This site does not pass the job on.
A cable down in the road or across a garden is a different call again. The Met Office after-storm list says not to touch electrical or telephone cables that have been blown down or are still hanging. The Energy Networks Association says to keep well clear, to keep other people clear, to call 105 in Great Britain or 03457 643 643 in Northern Ireland, and to dial 999 if someone is in immediate danger. A dish that has landed next to that cable is not a souvenir. Leave it.
While you wait, the Met Office page asks you to switch off appliances that would be dangerous if the power returned while you were out of the room: irons, ovens, electric fires and fryers. Leave one light switched on so you can see when the supply returns. Keep the fridge and freezer shut. Torches, not candles. If someone in the house depends on electricity for medical or mobility equipment, the same page points to the Priority Services Register, a free register run with suppliers for older and disabled people and for people in that position. Joining it on Tuesday is preparation. It does not switch the street back on. If you smell gas, leave the house, avoid switches, and use the National Gas Emergency number on the Met Office page, 0800 111 999. A power cut does not make a gas hob a safe heater, and a plug-in heater does nothing until the power is back. The carbon monoxide alarm check is the page for the alarm itself.
Do not go outside to catch a tile, a bin or a swinging aerial while the warning is in force. The storm advice says repairs wait until the wind has passed, and that if a wall or fence fails it falls onto the sheltered side. Keep away from that side.
When this check is over
Some findings end the list. Put the torch down and use the other instruction.
- The live warning for your postcode is already in force, or it has been raised above the yellow issued on Monday. Stay indoors. Follow that warning, not a pavement walk written on Tuesday.
- Water is coming through a ceiling, a light fitting, or a roof window. Move to the roof-leak page. Fastening the front door does not stop that water.
- You smell gas, or you smell burning at the consumer unit. Leave the relevant hazard alone. Gas is 0800 111 999 from outside. Burning at the board is an electrician when you can safely meet them, and 999 if the house is on fire or someone is in danger.
- The only way to see the fault is a ladder, a roof window you would have to climb out of, or a walk along a parapet. Stop. Photograph from the pavement if you can do that without standing under the eaves.
- A cable is on the ground or hanging lower than usual. Stay clear and use 105, or 03457 643 643 in Northern Ireland.
After the wind, the storm page asks you to be careful near walls, buildings and trees, because they can have been weakened, and to check on neighbours who may need help arranging a repair. That repair is still their phone call or yours. A tile in the garden on Saturday morning is a roofer. A house that is dark when the rest of the street is lit is an electrician. A street that is dark is 105. The contact-details page shows how to reach a business yourself.
What to say when you do ring
On a roofing call, say which elevation, what is already on the ground, and that you have not been on the roof. Say whether the loft hatch closed, and whether water is indoors now or only a piece is missing. Ask them to attend after the warning if nothing is coming in, and ask whether the first figure is plus VAT. On an electrical call, say whether the neighbours have power, whether you reset a switch once, and whether there is a smell of burning. If the aerial is down and clear of any supply cable, say that too. If it is not clear of a cable, you are still on 105, not on a directory card.
A builder is the right conversation when the chimney stack itself is the failed part and a roofer has told you the job is masonry rather than a slipped pot. Say what you could see from the pavement, and that beds have been moved if they have. Do not ask for a scaffold in the hour the warning starts. Prices on this site, where a page exists, are ranges for whole jobs such as a new roof. They are not a quote for your stack.
Questions that change the call
Does a yellow warning mean I should leave the house?
Read the warning for your postcode and stay with it if it changes. The Met Office warnings guide says yellow covers a range of impacts and likelihoods, and that the colour alone does not tell you how your street will be affected. Monday’s BBC Weather piece described possible travel disruption, damage to buildings and a small risk of power cuts in the warned area. The storm advice says that once the wind is up you should stay indoors as much as possible, and that you should not go outside to repair damage while it is still blowing. If your warning is later raised, follow the newer text.
Do I need to measure the roof pitch before I fasten the loft hatch?
Close and fasten the hatch from inside either way. The Met Office storm page says to close and secure loft trapdoors with bolts, particularly where the roof pitch is less than 30 degrees. That “particularly” matters if you already know a bungalow or an extension roof is shallow. If you do not know the pitch, you still close the hatch. Measuring it means going on the roof, and this check does not include a ladder.
If the lights go out on Friday, who do I call?
Look at the houses next door before you choose a number. If they are dark as well, report the cut even if you think a neighbour already has. In England, Scotland and Wales the free number is 105. In Northern Ireland, NIE Networks publishes 03457 643 643. If the neighbours still have power, the Met Office power-cut page says the fault is likely to be the fuses or trip switches in your own home. If a switch will not stay on, or you smell burning at the consumer unit, leave the board alone and use an electrician once it is safe to be outside. If a cable is down, stay well clear and call 105, or 03457 643 643 in Northern Ireland, and call 999 if someone is in immediate danger.
Need a number after the wind drops?
Open the list, pick the city, and contact the business yourself.