Storm Babet

Qyburn

Winter is coming sooner than I was expecting. The local authority and SSEN have issued advance warning of likely power cuts (among other possible impacts) over the next couple of days.

MultiFuelBurner

Storms and bad weather are always over egg'd these days.

Bring back Michael Fish 

A few hours before the Great Storm of 1987 broke, on 15 October 1987, he said during the weather: "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't!".

ArbitraryRandom

Looking at the satellite data via Ventusky it looks like it's not really starting here until after midnight and will mostly be done with before 10... also the cloud cover will mean it should be a little warmer than the recent few days (suggesting around 17 or 18 mid-day), which will be nice. 

Gerry1

Qyburn said:

The local authority and SSEN have issued advance warning of likely power cuts (among other possible impacts) over the next couple of days.

Red warning from the Met Office includes loss of power and mobile phone service; communities completely cut off, perhaps for several days.

Good luck if you're cursed with BT Digital Voice and can't dial 999 because your landline needs power, ditto you can't dial 999 from your mobile because the same power failure has knocked out your mobile phone masts.

Qyburn

We're not within the Red warning area,  but have Amber for both wind and rain. Mobile phone signals for Vodafone and O2 were both off for several hours today (and Three degraded). Not sure if that's coincidence or an effect of preparation or test.

During Arwen we lost all services from one of the nearby masts and O2 from all masts in the area. O2 remained down for a few days afterwards. One of the reasons we don't all use the same carrier.

debitcardmayhem

Perhaps those to be affected will get the government warning on their phones before the “event”

mmmmikey

Gerry1 said:

Qyburn said:

The local authority and SSEN have issued advance warning of likely power cuts (among other possible impacts) over the next couple of days.

Red warning from the Met Office includes loss of power and mobile phone service; communities completely cut off, perhaps for several days.

Good luck if you're cursed with BT Digital Voice and can't dial 999 because your landline needs power, ditto you can't dial 999 from your mobile because the same power failure has knocked out your mobile phone masts.

I understand the point you're making but my experience is that landlines aren't immune from the effect of storms and you're just as likely to lose your landline as lose power. In fact, when I was on call doing IT support I dealt with far more issues due to landlines being down than I did because of loss of power. Telephone cables are as likely to be brought down in a storm as electricity cables, and in that instance a mobile 'phone is your best bet. 

So I think you just to have to roll the dice and take your chances - and if you're particularly vulnerable make sure you have a backup plan such as asking a nieighbour for help.

(p.s. the good news is that if you're lucky enough to have a smart meter and the comms network goes down it's not a big deal because the data will still be available when the network comes back )

QrizB

Gerry1 said:

Good luck if you're cursed with BT Digital Voice and can't dial 999 because your landline needs power, ditto you can't dial 999 from your mobile because the same power failure has knocked out your mobile phone masts.

Not that I imagine many people will be bothered, but satellite comms is relatively cheap these days. A similar price to a mid-to-premium mobile phone contract.

Here's an article that discusses them:

https://www.switchbacktravel.com/best-satellite-messengers

MultiFuelBurner

Starlink would be handy in Scotland

Qyburn

MultiFuelBurner said:

Starlink would be handy in Scotland

A colleague uses Starlink and reports it doesn't like heavy rain.

Gerry1

mmmmikey said:

Gerry1 said:

Qyburn said:

The local authority and SSEN have issued advance warning of likely power cuts (among other possible impacts) over the next couple of days.

Red warning from the Met Office includes loss of power and mobile phone service; communities completely cut off, perhaps for several days.

Good luck if you're cursed with BT Digital Voice and can't dial 999 because your landline needs power, ditto you can't dial 999 from your mobile because the same power failure has knocked out your mobile phone masts.

Telephone cables are as likely to be brought down in a storm as electricity cables, and in that instance a mobile 'phone is your best bet. 

So I think you just to have to roll the dice and take your chances - and if you're particularly vulnerable make sure you have a backup plan such as asking a neighbour for help.

Obviously it depends on the locality but my dropwire has never been knocked out.  (It helps that the telegraph pole is at the corner of my front garden.)  But power failures certainly aren't unknown.  Copper landlines remain working for all calls (both outgoing and incoming) during power failures but DV lines are killed stone dead.

A mobile phone will be flat after a day or two, and even if the phone still has some charge it'll be no use whatsoever because the towers go down the moment the lights go out.

Asking a neighbour won't be much use if the house is on fire or you're having a stroke, heart attack or stroke.  Even if their property is immediately adjacent, and they answer the door at 3am, they'll be equally unable to call 999.

DV simply hasn't been thought through and its implementation will cause distress and tragedies sooner or later.