The useful split this morning is the colour of the wind warning, and whether the house actually faces the sea. The Met Office press note, timed 10:47 on Wednesday 21 October 2026, says an amber wind warning covers the whole of Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and parts of west Devon. Deputy Chief Forecaster Chris Bulmer said Storm Austen was expected to bring impactful weather from Thursday night through Friday, that gusts could reach 60 to 70 mph for a time, and that those winds would be combined with spells of heavy rain. He said the winds should ease through Friday afternoon and evening. The same note keeps a wider yellow wind warning from Thursday evening into Friday, and it records a separate yellow rain warning for parts of southern and eastern Scotland on Friday.
The warning text issued at 09:41 the same morning is more specific about houses. On the amber, the Met Office says injuries and danger to life are likely from large waves and beach material thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and properties. It also says flying debris is likely, that tiles may be blown from roofs, and that power cuts are a good chance. The further detail on that amber says a spell of very strong northwesterly winds is likely on Friday morning, with a good chance of gusts of 60 to 70 mph widely for a time and perhaps around 80 mph on exposed headlands. The yellow text, for a wider southern area, says the same beach-material hazard could occur, which is a lower bar than “likely”. Gusts of 50 to 60 mph are likely in that yellow area, with 70 mph or more possible on some coasts and exposed spots, more so in the southwest. Ahead of the northwesterly, a spell of southerly winds with gusts of 50 to 60 mph is described as moving east along the south coast during Thursday night. The accessible warnings page was also carrying a notice that its list might be out of date. Treat the storm centre and the warning for your postcode as the clock. If the colour or the area has moved since Wednesday, follow the newer text.
What Thursday morning’s forecast asks you to do
The Met Office page on Thursday morning uses the headline “Mostly dry with sunny spells ahead of Storm Austen”. The forecast labelled for 8am is marked updated at 05:00, and the written forecast under it is marked 04:00. It says showers clear, then the southwest turns increasingly cloudy from mid-afternoon, with strengthening southerly winds as the storm approaches. Tonight, heavy rain moves northwards across much of England and Wales. On Friday, winds become strong and gusty, with gales and severe gales in places across the south, as the storm gradually clears. The outlook from Saturday to Monday keeps strong winds and heavy rain on Saturday, a briefer settled spell on Sunday, and more wind and rain on Monday. Bulmer’s line that Austen’s winds ease on Friday afternoon is about this storm. It does not make Saturday morning a free ladder slot. The press note already says another area of low pressure may bring strong winds to northern parts on Saturday and Sunday, with the potential for further warnings. If a new warning covers you on Saturday, the stay-indoors rule still applies.
That leaves a short outdoor window, and it is shorter in the southwest than along the Channel. Plymouth sits on the amber area list published with Wednesday’s warning, together with Cornwall, Devon and the Isles of Scilly. The press note’s phrase is “parts of west Devon”, so Exeter, and any other Devon address the list and the note do not agree on, should open the live map before treating the warning as amber. Brighton, Portsmouth and Southampton are named on the yellow for London and the south-east. Cardiff and Swansea are named on the yellow for Wales. Bristol is on the south-west yellow list as well. A wind warning over a postcode is not the same thing as a beach in front of the door. This page is for a house, a flat or a basement that faces open water, a promenade, a sea wall or a beach. A terrace in Exeter or Bristol with no sea in sight uses the fasten page for the doors, and stops there.
Do the sea-facing latches and the car move while Thursday is still dry. In the southwest that window narrows from mid-afternoon. Along the south coast, the yellow text puts southerly gusts of 50 to 60 mph on Thursday night. Friday morning is the wrong time to be on the promenade.
Who should use these steps
Use them if you can see the sea, an estuary beach or a shingle bank from the rooms you sleep in, and your postcode is inside the amber or the yellow wind warning. Plymouth, Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Swansea and Cardiff are the city lists further down if that describes the building. A top-floor flat set back behind a row of houses can still take spray and stones if the front opens onto the front. A house two streets inland, with roofs between it and the water, is much less likely to take beach material through the glass. Wind damage there is the fasten page and, if a tile is already down, the roof-leak page.
Scotland’s yellow rain warning is a different job. The press note and the warning text put heavy rain across southern and central Scotland before dawn on Friday, extending over the north-east through the morning, with 20 to 40 mm widely and 60 to 80 mm possible in places. The warning says there is a small chance homes and businesses could be flooded. Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen sit in the areas named on that rain warning. Unless the building itself faces the sea, the promenade steps below are the wrong list. Use the flood guidance for Scotland linked from GOV.UK’s flood page, and read the live rain warning. Water that is already indoors from rain on a street is the surface-water page.
Tenants can latch windows, move what they own off the floor, and stay off the front. They cannot authorise a new window or a masonry repair. Tell the landlord what you could see from indoors, and leave the tools alone. Owner-occupiers on a seafront terrace still only deal with the parts of the building that are theirs. The promenade, the coast road and a council sea wall are not a DIY shovel job, in the wind or after it.
What you can still do from inside this morning
The Met Office storm page splits the work into before, during and after. The before items that belong on this page are the ones that keep sea-facing glass shut and keep you off the water. The RNLI line carried in Wednesday’s press note asks people to stay a safe distance from the water, because large waves and strong winds can knock you off your feet or wash you in. If someone else is in the water, that note says not to go in after them. Phone 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard. The amber “what should I do” text says the same emergency call, and it says that even from the shore a large breaking wave can sweep you off your feet.
- Open the live warning for your postcode. If you are outside both wind warnings, and the house does not face the sea, stop. Use the fasten page for doors and the loft hatch, and the power-cut page if the lights fail.
- Latch every sea-facing window and the door onto a balcony, a deck or the front, from inside. Do the rest of the house as well if you have not already. The windward face on Friday morning may be the opposite of the one that takes the southerly on Thursday night.
- If the car is on the seafront side, move it only while it is still calm, and only to a garage or a space you already have that is clear of the house, trees, walls and fences, and off the promenade. If the only route is a drive along the front after the wind has risen, leave the car where it is.
- Move things you would mind losing off the floor of the room that faces the water. Do it from inside. A basement that opens towards the beach is the first room to empty onto a higher floor.
- If you already own flood barriers or air-brick covers, and a flood warning says flooding is expected, GOV.UK says you can use that protection. Covering a brick for the hours of a warning is that advice. Cementing the air brick shut is a different job, and it waits until the street is dry. The surface-water page has the longer version.
- Charge the phone. Write 105 for a power cut in England, Scotland and Wales, and Floodline 0345 988 1188, the 24-hour number GOV.UK publishes, with textphone 0345 602 6340. In Wales, live flood warnings sit with Natural Resources Wales. Coastguard is 999 or 112. A phone with a flat battery cannot show you any of those in the dark.
- Stay off the promenade, the sea wall and the beach. Watching the waves arrive is how a look becomes the emergency the RNLI note describes.
What you might see, and who deals with it later
Match what you can see from a dry room to the call you make after the warning has cleared. You are not surveying the front in the dark.
| What you can see from indoors | While the warning is in force | Who you ring later |
|---|---|---|
| Shingle or spray against glass that is still intact | Leave the window shut. Stay out of that room if the pane is flexing. Do not open it to knock stones off the sill | Nobody, if the glass held and the water stayed out. A builder if the frame has shifted or the seal has failed |
| A cracked or holed pane, with rain or spray coming in | Leave that room. Move what you can from a dry doorway. Do not climb out, and do not board the opening from the promenade | A builder or a glazier for glass and frame that belong to the house. Say which elevation, and that you stayed indoors |
| Water across the floor from the sea side | Move people and pets upstairs. Do not wade. Do not touch a switch if you are standing in water. Turn supplies off only if you can do that from a dry place | The flood service for your nation, and 999 if you are in immediate danger. A builder later, for a threshold that let water in, once the warning has cleared |
| Shingle piled on a council promenade or the coast road | Leave it. It is not your shovel, and the road may be closing for a reason | The local council, for the highway and the promenade. A directory card does not clear a coast road |
| A tile, slate or ridge piece on the ground as well as stones from the beach | Leave it where it lies. Water through a ceiling is the roof-leak page, from a dry room | A roofer, after the warning. Say you have not been on the roof. Ask them to attend once it is safe |
| The neighbours’ lights out, or a smell of gas | Stay with the power-cut page. Gas means leave, avoid switches, and call from outside | 105 if the street is dark. 0800 111 999 if you smell gas, the emergency number that page records from the Met Office |
GOV.UK’s flood page says that if flooding is expected you move family, pets and important items upstairs, you use flood protection you already have, and you turn off gas, electricity and water only if it is safe. It says not to drive, walk or cycle through flood water, and not to put yourself at risk to move a vehicle or belongings when a severe flood warning is in force. Sea water over a wall is that kind of water. It is a different route from a blocked yard gully. Pumping out on Saturday has its own rule on the same page: you may need a permit before water goes into a river, a public sewer or a street drain, and the fire service may charge if you ask them to pump. Read that section before you hire a pump. This page does not set the permit.
While Friday morning’s wind is on the glass
During the storm, the Met Office says to stay indoors as much as possible, not to walk or shelter close to buildings and trees, and to keep away from the sheltered side of boundary walls and fences because they fall that way if they fail. It says not to go outside to repair damage while the storm is in progress. On a seafront that sheltered side may be the room behind the promenade, or the alley behind a low wall. Keep away from the face the wall would fall into. Enter and leave, if you must, by a door on the landward side, and close it behind you.
A bang on the glass is a reason to step back into a room that still has its panes, not a reason to go and look. Stones can follow a broken pane. If rain or spray is coming in, shut the internal door on that room if you can do it without crossing a wet floor and a live socket. One light left on in a dry room tells you when a power cut ends. Switch off an iron, an oven or a fryer you would not want to restart unattended. The longer power-cut routine, including the boiler, is the other page. A plug-in heater does nothing until the power is back, and it does nothing useful in a wet room.
If the lights fail across the street, report it even if you think a neighbour already has. In England, Scotland and Wales, 105 is the free number. If a cable is down on the front or hanging lower than usual, stay clear and use 105, and 999 if someone is in immediate danger. A dish or a length of fascia that has landed next to that cable stays where it is. The after-storm list on the Met Office page says not to touch electrical or telephone cables that have been blown down or are still hanging.
Do not clear shingle, do not stand on the promenade, and do not go down to the beach to see the waves. The warning text and the RNLI note in Wednesday’s press release both treat the shore as a place you can be swept from. Repairs wait until your wind warning has cleared.
When this check is over
Some findings end the list. Put the latch down and use the other instruction.
- The emergency services tell you to evacuate, or a severe flood warning is in force and you are in immediate danger. Call 999 if you or someone else is in that danger. Leave if you are told to. Do not go back for a photograph.
- Someone is in the water, or has been knocked down by a wave or by debris. Phone 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard. Do not go in after them.
- You smell gas, or you smell burning at the consumer unit. Leave the hazard alone. Gas is 0800 111 999 from outside. Burning at the board is an electrician when you can meet them safely, and 999 if the house is on fire or someone is in danger.
- Water is coming through a ceiling, a light fitting or a roof window. That is the roof-leak page. Shingle on the front path does not explain a drip in the loft.
- The only way to see the damage is a ladder, a walk along the sea wall, or a step onto the beach. Stop. An upstairs window is enough of a view.
- You are about to pump water into a drain, a sewer or the sea. Stop and read the permit section on the GOV.UK flood page first.
After the wind, the storm page says 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. Friday afternoon is the earliest Bulmer’s note puts the easing. The Thursday forecast still has a wet and windy Saturday. Wait until the warning that covers your postcode has actually cleared before you stand outside.
What to say when you do ring
On a building call, say that the house faces the sea, which elevation took the stones or the spray, and whether the pane is cracked, holed or only rattled. Say whether water crossed the floor, and that you have not been on the promenade or on a ladder. Ask them to come after the warning if the weather is no longer coming in. Ask whether the first figure is plus VAT, and what is excluded. A price for a whole new roof, where this site has one, sits on the cost notes and is the wrong comparison for one pane. How to read the figure is the quote page.
Open the city list and use the number on the card. For a seafront house in the warned area: building in Plymouth, Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Swansea and Cardiff. Anywhere else, use the same pattern under building. A tile on the ground is roofing, not a glazier. A wet consumer unit, once it is safe to be at the door, is electrical. You ring. This site does not pass the job on. The contact-details page shows how that call works.
Say, in the same call, what you have already ruled out. Glass intact and floor dry is a record, not an emergency visit. Glass gone and rain still blowing in is a visit as soon as they can attend safely. Shingle on the public promenade is the council. A street with no lights is 105. Mixing those into one “storm damage” sentence is how the wrong trade arrives first.
Questions that change the call
Does the amber warning mean I should leave a seafront house?
Leave if the emergency services tell you to, or if a severe flood warning is in force and you are in immediate danger. The Met Office describes amber as an increased likelihood of impacts, including a possible risk to life and property, and it tells you to stay indoors as much as possible while the wind is up. GOV.UK says a severe flood warning means danger to life, to call 999 if you or someone else is in immediate danger, and to leave the area if you are told to evacuate. A yellow or amber wind warning on its own is a reason to stay off the promenade and inside a sound room. It is not, by itself, an order to drive away along the coast.
Can I move the car along the front once the wind has started?
Move it on Thursday only if you already have a garage or a space clear of the house, trees, walls and fences, and that space is off the promenade. The Met Office storm page says not to drive unless the journey is really necessary, and not to go outside to repair damage while the storm is in progress. A drive along the seafront to chase a better parking spot, after southerly gusts have started on Thursday night or during Friday morning’s gales, is the journey to skip. If the car is already there, leave it until the warning for your postcode has cleared.
Who do I call if shingle has broken a window and the wind has dropped?
A builder or a glazier, for glass and a frame that belong to the house, once your wind warning has cleared and you can meet them without standing on the promenade. Say which elevation, that spray or rain came in, and that you have stayed indoors. Shingle on a council promenade or a coast road is a report to the council, not a job you shovel yourself. Tiles or slates on the ground are a roofer, after the same wait. If the street is dark, use 105. If someone is in the water, use 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard.