Impression Of A Storm

Today Storm Eunice hit. We woke up to a red weather warning from the Met Office - which means dangerous weather is expected, with a strong likelihood of risk to life, substantial disruption to travel, energy supplies and possible damage to property and infrastructure. The first time we have ever had this type of weather warning in the South East of England.
Initially it was just very windy but by 10 am the storm had really hit and the windspeed must have hit 70 to 80 mph (we found out later in the day that it had reached 122 mph at an exposed location in the Isle of Wight!).
Today's image was taken at the height of the storm looking up to the top of our garden where our neighbour's huge silver birch tree was flexing alarmingly in the maelstrom. To given an impression of the storm I kept the shutter speed slow to try to capture some movement and give a sense of the extreme conditions. Thankfully the tree did survive.
My brother was really concerned as he had not been told not to travel by his employers (he works in London) but on hearing of the red weather warning he rang his boss and said it had been reported on the news that people should not travel unless it was essential and had been advised to stay at home. Thankfully his boss agreed which was just as well as all train services in Kent were cancelled a few hours later - he would have been stuck in London with no way to get back home.
Therefore, we spent the rest of the day battening down the hatches and waiting for the storm to pass. Luckily we managed to escape without any damage.