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Betty–The Storm That Never Was

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From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/1692492075319628258

Following on from the heatwave that never was, the Met Office decided to hype Storm Betty. There was talk of half a month’s rainfall, maybe as much as 80mm:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2023/storm-betty-named-by-met-eireann

The reality was much more mundane. Ballypatrick in N Ireland saw the most rain, 36mm, and the extremes in England and Scotland were much less than that:

As for winds, they forecast gusts up to 70 mph in exposed places, and 55 mph widely:

https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/1692492075319628258/photo/1

Sure enough, they found a handful of extremely exposed sites. Capel Curig, for instance, sits at an altitude of 216m in the middle of Snowdonia:

https://twitter.com/metoffice/status/1692780913619341821/photo/1

But down in the real world, the winds were a gentle breeze, even on that west coast of Wales, according to the Beaufort Scale:

But Gentle Breeze Betty does not have quite the same ring to it!