Storm Goretti is the first named storm of 2026 in Europe, officially named by Météo- France (the French meteorological service).

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

Storm Goretti has been making the headlines this morning.

From the BBC’s summary late last night:

Snow has been the main problem, though the tip of Cornwall suffered from strong winds:

The Scillies bore the brunt of them, as the strongest band of winds stayed offshore, but in terms of the mainland, wind gusts were in the 70 to 90 mph range, 60 to 78 kts.

To put Goretti into perspective, we only have to look at the infamous Burns Day Storm in January 1990:

These are all the locations with more than 60 kt winds. Down in Cornwall, they hit 93 kts, which is 107 mph.

BBC2 News reported two days later:

Less well known is the fact that the Burns Day Storm continued wreaking death and destruction on the Continent:

Swiss Re reported later that year:

A year of severe storms and great expense for primary insurers and reinsurers, 1990 has gone down in history. Cyclone Daria began on 25 January, the birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns, and so became known as the Burns’ Day Storm. Storms Wiebke and Vivian followed later that same year.

A storm of new proportions

Even today, Cyclone Daria remains one of the most devastating and expensive storms the world has ever seen. In Northern and Central Europe, some 95 people died as a result of Daria and Swiss Re estimated the total cost of property damage to be around EUR 6 billion. The storm cost UK insurers in particular a considerable amount of money, with companies paying out almost GBP 3.37 billion. As the Daria travelled from Ireland to Denmark, around three million trees were felled, half a million households lost electricity and there were severe floods in the UK and western Germany in particular.

Strong winds caused devastation

The storm was preceded by a considerably warm winter. In Germany, for example, temperatures reached 20 degrees before Christmas. Daria started out as a cold front over the North Atlantic. On the morning of 25 January, the storm made landfall over Ireland and then moved east over Great Britain. Daria caused major damage along its path, mainly in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Denmark. The strongest sustained winds recorded were between 110km/h and 120km/h, though strong gusts of up to 170km/h were reported – these gusts were responsible for the most extensive damage.

The next major storm is bound to come

The 1990 storm cluster brought several companies or entire markets to the limits of their financial capabilities. This underlines how important it is to prepare for these peak events. Experience has shown that several areas are critical.

https://www.swissre.com/risk-knowledge/mitigating-climate-risk/winter-storms-in-europe/cyclone-daria-burns-day-storm.html

As a footnote, the BBC blamed Burns Day on, you guessed it, global warming:

One other comment. The Met Office have claimed the 99 mph winds at Scilly St Marys is a new record at the site – see here. This seems highly unlikely, given the 107 mph winds at Gwennap Head in 1990.

It turns out that the Met Office did not publish data from the Scillies back then!